Russia says 'nyet' to Ukraine election results
Moscow accuses Western observers of being biased.
As European leaders hailed the apparent victory of Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko as a triumph for democracy worldwide,
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Russia
might refuse to recognize Mr. Yushchenko as the new president of his country. A statement issued by Moscow Wednesday said that electoral observers from the West were "not objective" when they said the election process was free of tampering.
Meanwhile, the
Herald reports an observer mission from the Russia-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) alleged that it had "found"
huge electoral fraud that favored Yushchenko. Among the possible violations, reports
Ukrainska Pravda, was "election propaganda, which is prohibited during the voting day, in the form of numerous orange marks in the streets."
Tuesday, the Ukraine Central Election Comission announced that Yushchenko, known for his pro-Western stance, had won the election by
2.8 million votes. "In principle, we have the result," said Yaroslav Davydovych, the head of the commission. "I don't know who can doubt it."
Moscow had originally pledged it would honor the outcome of the election even if its favored candidate, current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, did not win. And in a gesture towards Moscow, Yushchenko had told the Russian newspaper,
Izvestia, that one of his first priorities as the new leader of Ukraine would be to "set straight his countries's '
deformed ties' with Russia."
But the Turkish news website
Zaman Online reports that members of the CIS, especially Russia, see the Ukraine's election results – brought about by the "Orange Revolution" – as a "revolution threat" and "indicated that this was the most
serious foreign policy test for Russia since 1991."
Zaman Online also reports that Dmitri Trenin, the Deputy Head of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace's Moscow office, says the election results have different, but "extremely critical" meanings for Russia, the European Union (EU), and the US.
"Russia joined the game and supported the presidential candidate too late. Ukraine will remain the same as it was in the old days. The most significant question is with whom Ukraine will integrate and cooperate. Yushchenko wants to integrate with the West. This will take a long time. Will the enlarged EU ship be able to carry anyone else?" Trenin says the key lies beyond the suggestions of Russia and EU. He also disclosed that Ukraine, which might be the US' most powerful regional ally along with Poland in the future, is also very significant for the EU because of the tension it raises in Russian relations.
The
Daily Telegraph reports that the new allegation from Moscow may "derail attempts to bring a swift end to Ukraine's protracted political crisis and may
usher in a new crisis in already strained relations between the West and Moscow."
Mr. Yanukovich has refused to resign and
vowed never to acknowledge Yushchenko's victory. He has also accused the United States of "interferring" in the election, and Tuesday night appealed to Ukraine's Supreme Court to overturn the election results, just as Yushchenko was able to do
after the initial election.
On Wednesday, however, Yanukovich was
prevented from holding a cabinet meeting on Wednesday when hundreds of Yushchenko supporters surrounded a government building and refused to allow cabinet ministers to enter.
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