National Endownment of Democracy funds Ukrainian "Opposition"

by pc Wed Dec 29, 2004 04:26

Although huge rallies in support of pro-Russian presidential candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich barely make it to television screens, audiences around the Western world have probably all seen the laser-lit, plasma-screened Yushchenko rock concerts.

"The two candidates ... have their roots in the same anti-democratic ruling elite which divided the wealth of the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union"

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8CF314BD-0BD9-4A59-89B6-95E989034DFE.htm

US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,15569,1360236,00.html

If you want to know how to beat a regime that controls the mass media, the judges, the courts, the security apparatus and the voting stations, the young Belgrade activists are for hire.
...
Stickers, spray paint and websites are the young activists' weapons. Irony and street comedy mocking the regime have been hugely successful in puncturing public fear and enraging the powerful.
...
The Democratic party's National Democratic Institute, the Republican party's International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros's open society institute.

by tony Wed Dec 29, 2004 07:24

So, you're endorsing Yanukovich as the better option?

by pc Wed Dec 29, 2004 14:57

...

by tony Wed Dec 29, 2004 19:59

... then what is the solution? I don't believe it's right for us in the West to criticize the Ukranian people's grasp for democracry and freedom from criminality because there was American money partly behind it - you can leave that kind of posturing to the marginalised of counterpunch.org and their confederates. You can be damn sure that there was even more Russian money propping up the current status quo of Yanukovich et al.

by pc Wed Dec 29, 2004 22:11

if "we" in the "west" can fund we can criticise, one corrupt democracy for another hurray!!!
its seem to me even more now it was a complete sham

by leif halvard silli Thu Dec 30, 2004 03:20 hyperlekken at lenk dot no

Yes. Why not? Indeed, why not?

by redjade Thu Dec 30, 2004 15:19

Yes the NED and others funded much of the opposition and so on. $65 million was one number I read somewhere.

But it disturbs me very much how quite many on the Left are quick to condemn the changes happening in Ukraine. It seemed after the first rigged election every leftie in western europe was an overnight arm-chair expert in all things Ukraine!

Obviously we should be suspicious whenever Bush and his cronies put their hand in anything anywhere - that goes without saying on this website. But lets not insult the Ukrainian people who want change from the current Soviet-ish Regime. We should be celebrating progressive change, knowing that it is always less than perfect or ideal.

And this is where I get suspicious of some of the lefties who have been so quick to condemn Yushchenko and the entire Orange effort. Remember, some in the left still think Milosevic is innocent of war crimes.

For some it is hard to let go of their secret admiration of the hammer and sickle. Its easy to admire when you're not the one being hammered and sickled. (some only put that Hammer and Sickle in the closet, ya know?)

Ukraine is a split country, but a majority has chosen - in what seems to be a free and fair election - to break from Soviet-ish past and look toward the EU and maybe someday even join it. Whatever one's critique of the EU is this is not hard to understand.

Many in that part of the world fear a potential future where a resurgent Russia will be dominant again. Free and fair elections and a self-governing sovereignty is a small protection against that possibility. This should be celebrated.

-redjade

- - -

As Marc Cooper says:
http://marccooper.typepad.com/marccooper/2004/12/the_orange_and_.html

''Lamentable it has been that some on the British and American left  actually seemed upset over Yuschenko’s movement. Support from the Bush administration, they say, tainted the whole process. Many U.S. critics of Yuschenko are quick to point out that his American-born wife once worked for the Reagan administration. And the family of his opponent? Or his opponent himself ?

Suddenly the KGB is purer than the American Enterprise Institute?''

- - -

as Stephen Zunes says:
http://www.fpif.org/papers/ukraine2004.html
Furthermore, the left’s lukewarm response has given both the right and the mainstream media an opportunity to brand the entire progressive community with allegations that we oppose freedom and democracy.

- - -

And don't forget Timothy Garton Ash's six questions...

Bitter lemons
Six questions to the critics of Ukraine's orange revolution
By Timothy Garton Ash - Dec 2, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,15569,1364361,00.html

1. Can't you see the wood for the trees?
2. Do you think Ukrainians don't deserve democracy?
3. Are you reluctant to support the orange movement just because the Americans do?
4. Why is Russia entitled to a sphere of influence, including Ukraine, if the United States is not entitled to a sphere of influence, including Nicaragua?
5. Would you rather have George Bush or Vladimir Putin?
6. If you don't like the Americans taking the lead in Ukraine, why don't we?

by pc Thu Dec 30, 2004 17:33

if it was wrong for NED to interfere in Venezuala how is it good for them to do it in the Ukraine I guess the best question is wheher the people will be better off in the long ru use it as steppin stone to independence but an accountable state...

by redjade Fri Dec 31, 2004 17:26

umm pc, sorry that rant wasn't directed at you, by the way - i know yer not a secret admirer of ol uncle Joe :-)

by pc Fri Dec 31, 2004 19:34

yeah but did I hope I stumbled upon a good question... personally I put those links up because I was intrigue by the stuff in the Guardian article describing that student revolutionary group _partly_ funded by US thinks tanks, I remember them getting the Free your Mind award at the MTV awards a few years back... holding a black and white fist flag (instead of Red and Yellow?)... them and Bono... Chavez is no saint but I wonder what brand of democracy is being spread to the Ukraine if Chavez's continued (working class? ) popular support is not the right flavour of free and fair democracy? Do they want democracy or markets? Im presuming NED is made up of the left and right of the US... is western plutocracy better then former communist authoritarianism? does one choose the lesser of two evils and hope its step in the right direction like in the US or discount it on some sort of principle... (from afar) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_Democracy

by redjade Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:55

'Do they want democracy or markets?'

precisely.

Jonathan Steele has a good op/ed in the Dec 30 04 Guardian.....

''As with "humanitarian interventionism", which was much debated in the 90s, "electoral interventionism" needs to be thrashed out. Why is so much of it selective? Why do western governments (for they are the prime interferers) that claim to be fostering democracy take only one side, rather than being above the fray? Why are only certain countries picked? Georgia, but not Azerbaijan. Serbia, but not Croatia. Zimbabwe, but not Egypt.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1381326,00.html

by redjade Sat Jan 08, 2005 14:54

In contrast to Yanukovych’s supporters, the opinion poll in Den found that 70 per cent of Yushchenko’s supporters saw the election as a choice between interest groups and rule of law, while only 22.7 per cent felt it was an East-West struggle. In general, the perception that it was a tug-of-war between East and West was engendered by Yanukovych’s negative campaign against Yushchenko, which raised issues such as language (an issue that was resolved with the passage of the constitution in 1996 that made Ukrainian the state language but gave official status to other languages), and charged that Yushchenko stood for a complete rejection of Russia in favor of the West. While the west did contribute to pressure to hold a fair election rerun, the race and its outcome was a national matter for Ukrainians, funded by Ukrainian interest groups and its results, if free, would have been recognized by the West regardless of who won.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/infoservice/sw/details.cfm?ID=10482

by redjade Mon Jan 10, 2005 17:12

Withdrawing Ukraine Troops from Iraq Priority, Yushchenko Says
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0109-11.htm

KIEV - The winner of Ukraine's presidential vote Viktor Yushchenko said that withdrawing the nation's troops from Iraq will be a priority for him once he takes office, after an accidental blast killed seven Ukrainian soldiers there.

"Viktor Yushchenko sends deep condolences to the families of Ukrainian peacekeepers who died in Iraq Sunday," said a statement released by his press office late Sunday.

"Insofar as withdrawing Ukraine's peacekeeping contingent from Iraq, it remains one of Yushchenko's priorities once he assumes office," the statement said.

by redjade Tue Jan 18, 2005 15:01

The EU trade commissioner has said that, if Ukraine continues its reforms, an EU-Ukraine free trade agreement would be possible.

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?_lang=EN&tcmuri=tcm:29-134285-16&type=News

-- -- --

Yushchenko assumes the Ukrainian presidency in a largely-polarized country with deep political, social and economic divisions. He faces an intransigent Russia that feels it has lost a major public relations battle; a number of former Soviet states that see Ukraine as a threat to their regimes; and a largely supportive West. Having emerged as a winner in the new, fast "Great Game" that just unfolded in Eastern Europe, Ukraine has to chart a careful course between its prior economic and political commitments and a new, democratic future. As one of the key states that separates the new West from the former Soviet space, Ukraine stands to benefit greatly if Yushchenko can capitalize on his democratic victory and avoid further dissent to the new government.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=10557