According to the Presidential website, Viktor Yushchenko, accompanied by the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, and the PM of Latvia, in a remarkable show of solidarity, is today visiting Tbilisi with the aim of "providing support for Georgia, and also assisting to achieve regulation of the current [Russian-Georgian] conflict..."
"The Ukrainian side considers this common mission of the heads of democratic European states an important part of the efforts of the international community to maintain and guarantee the territorial unity and sovereignty of independent Georgia," says the posting.
A quick look at the websites of other Ukrainian political parties is revealing:
The 'Batkivschyna' party site [whose largest constituent is BYuT] announces that the Ukrainian government, with Yulia Tymshenko at the helm, is to provide humanitarian help to the Georgian population, and that additional aircraft are being provided to assist in evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from that country.
Tymoshenko's own personal site has similar messages. But the latest posting on her site is one of congratulation to an Olympic sportsman for gaining a medal in Beijing in the Jujitsu discipline.
Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions' site announces they are sending humanitarian aid to Ossetians and Georgian families. They are also demanding an emabargo on the supply of weapons to Georgia, whilst PoR spokesperson Hanna Herman considers there is a need to look into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' competence in investigating the supply of weaponry to global "hot-spots". [Russia had alleged Ukraine had been supplying Georgia with weapons.]
There is also some criticism of the current authority: "The irresponsible confrontational actions of the current authorities are leading to Ukraine being dragged into the conflict between Georgia and Russia. We demand such practices be stopped....PoR condemns any agressive acts directed toward solving regional conflicts by means of force. We call for termination of military action and for the immediate return to peaceful negotiations...PoR appeals to western politicians not to employ dual standards both in the Georgian-South Ossetian-Russian conflict, and in their approach to all other regional problems as one-sided support of one or other side creates dangerous precedents....We appeal primarily to the Ukrainian leadership not to support just one side of the conflict, [but to] conduct a balanced and wise foreign policy in the conflict involving the three sides and to consider the national interests of Ukraine."
PoR and BYuT are by far the two largest political parties in Ukraine. They know which way the wind is now blowing..
p.s. - Something to think about from today's London 'Times' here
Not surprisingly, Vitrenko the Konotop witch wants to resurrect the sovok union.
ReplyDeleteBut here is my question, with a preface:
Yushchenko is standing up in opposition to maskva. Good. But he also supported Chernovetsky for mayor, who is notoriously corrupt, and who openly bought votes for his re-election as mayor of Kyiv.
Yushchenko is kissing up to Akhmetov, the $31 billion man, and Akhmetov's corruption. And I have no doubt that Akhmetov and his ilk would rather be in a sovereign and independent Ukraine, rather than sitting in a Siberian jail, like Khodorkosky, a formerly wealthy Russian oligarch - until Putin put him in a Siberian jail.
So --- who would Yushchenko rather have standing behind him in support of Ukraine -
1) "voters" like those who sold their souls for about $100 bucks to Chernovetsky
or
2) people who know what Ukraine is, and who are willing to stand up for Ukraine?
If it's the former, then this could turn into another Poltava, when in 1709, Mazepa and the Swedes had a chance to defeat Russian imperialism - except that a whole bunch of Ukrainian cossacks simply sat down because they were not going to fight against their "rooshan orthodox brothers."
And I wonder if the PoR really knows what Ukraine's national interests are.
I wish I knew more about those two parties.
ReplyDeleteHere in America, the general public, by 86% in recent polls, side with Georgia and our other democratic allies.
The voices from the Democrats, on the other hand, are siding with Russia. Our left is becoming more and more socialists!
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Georgia mini-war, the point that I was trying to make is that in the months to come Ukraine will be adopting a more 'active neutrality' stance with regard to its neighbours. President Yushchenko is unlikely to win next year's presidential elections - his ratings are very low. The next president will probably be either Tymoshenko or Yanukovych and their parties are adopting a softly-softly, or an openly critical attitude to the current presidents' policies on Georgia.
ReplyDeleteSaakashvili's reckless actions have done much damage already to stablity in this part of the world.
I read today that the US navy is sending ships into the Black Sea to deliver humanitarian aid - this makes me feel uneasy.
One final thought. Georgia would elicit more sympathy to its current plight from neutral observers following its mini-war with Russia if it had removed statues of Stalin from its cities after independence, including the one in Gori.
Can one imagine statues of Hitler in Austrian towns in this day and age?
LEvko, I wouldn't worry too much about the statue of Stalin in Gori, although you make a good point. It's like worrying about what color your curtains are as Russian tanks blow up your home.
ReplyDeleteBesides, all over Ukraine there are still statues of Lenin, and idiots who carry icons of Stalin.
Here's the point - this was not an overnight development. The rooshans have been poking, poking, poking, like little gansters, for years, every since the sovok union fell apart. They can't stand the fact that they are no longer large and in charge, that they no longer control everything from Maskva.
On top of that, Putin has a little man Napoleon complex, and roosha is falling apart (maskva is not roosha, and the poverty and short life spans - pitiful). So what to do? Well, you attain "glory" for yourself by focusing on "foreign enemies."
For roosha, that happens to be everybody that they don't control. It's a delusional, psychotic government, and the only way they can think of to establish a "national identity" is to act like a bully and to beat people up.
Even their own people.
There is a pipeline, the B-T-C pipeline, which goes through Georgia in order to reduce dependence on roosha for oil and gas. It doesn't fit in with roosha's avowed plan for dominating the world, in all of roosha's oily orthodox "goodness" - so they don't like it.
Georgia, along with other countries, is trying to develop its own democracy. Not under control of the Kremlin - so roosha doesn't like it, even though Georgia started out its recent life as a democracy with a bunch of former sovoks, just like all the other former sovok republics.
Except that noone wants to report to maskva any more. Roosha doesn't like that.
So after 10 years of roosha poking and poking, and Georgia poking back, it all blows up.
Over S. Ossetia? Where there are 73,000 people? Heck, no. Georgia and the other sovok republics had a lot of help from Europe and the US. The rooshans don't like that.
So roosha is reduced to "protecting its rooshan citizens" in S. Ossetia, an area of 73,000, and then using that as an excuse to try and level Georgia.
If there was any doubt whatsoever about how vile and stupid and bullying the rooskies are, that was put to rest by that whole episode.
The fact that Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, France, Germany, Hungary, the US, and others support Georgia's freedom should not make anyone nervous. Except for bullies in maskva who view the entire world as their enemy, and as their slave.
I would be more worried about the Black Sea Fleet that is blocking Georgia's coast, and bombing ships on the Georgian coast. By the way, roosha claims that its Black Sea Fleet is on a "humanitarian" mission.
Lavrov is right: Shaakashvili cannot expect the big dogs to come in and take care of business just because, and every time little dog Georgia starts a fight.
But there was lots of snarling and snapping before this fight started. And roosha turned out to be a rabid, mad dog, without any human qualities whatsoever.
This is the 21st century. roosha thinks it is the tsarist imperialist times, or sovok times, when they could just roll tanks into anywhere.
I think Georgia has all the sympathy in the world at this point.
Yushchenko is playing yet again a very destructive and devise game play.
ReplyDeleteAnyone that has been watching closely the events that have unfolded in Georgia is very much aware that the current crisis in Georgia was initiated by the Office of the Georgian President who acted to deliberately provoked Russia into a response.
The Northern Caucus region of Georgia is predominately Russian and the ethnic tensions have remained in that regions since 1992following the collapse of the soviet Union.
The recent declaration of Kosovo has set a very dangerous precedent and one that is not beginning to show signs of descent.
There is no right in war situation only wrongs.
Saakashvili's actions have cost the lives of over 2,000 people.
He should face the Hague forward crimes against his won people.His actions are no different then Saddam Hussein's attempt to exterminate the Kurds in Iraq.
There are a number of other "breakaway separatist movements in the regions all who are watching very closely the events that are unfolding.
Much of this has the fingerprints of the USA all over it.Tight down to the text book quick responses it gave immediately after hostilities broke out.
Yushchenko's actions run the serious risk of inflaming the situation and further dividing the regions.
When push comes to shove we can expect a possible reaction evaluation of ethnic conflict. Ukraine starting with Crimea will side with Russia and the country runs the serious risk being engulfed by the events that are unfolding.
Diplomacy is what is called for not political grand standing.
Yushchenko may very much be seeking to add fuel to the conflict and could very much use any unrest in the region as an excuse to try and install Martiallaw.We have seen him hint at such actions before.
If Crimea seeks to breakaway from Ukraine and enforce its independence Yushchenko will use this as an excuse to suspend democracy and delay the next round of Presidential elections and install a Presidential dictatorship who answers only to the White-house in Washington USA and not the people of Ukraine.
There was a Slavic mystic who has predicted that this year will be the seeds for the next world war which will engulf the world come 2010.
I hope that this prediction will not come true. As Ukraine undoubtedly will play a significant role in the events that will unfold.
Oh, look, Lavrov has showed up to tell us that Saakashvili is a "war criminal," and that roosha is simply trying to impose the milk of human kindness on Ossetia - and on Georgia, with artillery, tanks and guns.
ReplyDeleteroosha has been poking its snotty nose into Georgia for over 10 years on assorted pretexts.
There are 73,000 Ossetians, whose government consists of a few KGB thugs. This is not a "separatist" region, it's a region where roosha wants to stir the pot as usual, to get to Georgia's pipeline, which, according to the rooshan view, "undermines" roosha's "status" as a world power and first ("pyrvaya") in the world.
When it comes to government, rooskies are just plain sick.
Oh, yes - roosha is now going to investigate the "genocide" supposedly committed by Saakashvili in S. Ossetia.
Kosovo as a parallel to S. Ossetia?
How many Muslims are there in S. Ossetia?
I thought roosha was "protecting" its oily orthodox rooshan citizens in Ossetia, from the big bad Georgian wolves.
Rooskies make everything so confusing, under the guise of peace.