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Ukraine Politics: A Drama Stranger than Fiction |
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Sunday, 12 December 2004 |
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 "I believe now more and more that what happened to me was an act of a settling of political scores," Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko told reporters. "The aim was to kill me."
In Ukraine, a drama that is stranger than fiction is unfolding. What started as a typical staged elections where a corrupt regime is expected to win is now unfolding as a major shift of a former Soviet republic from absolute Russian dominance to a country that feels more European. The drama is mostly propelled by self-destructing moves by the regime and its Russian supporters:
- Large scale fraud was reported by monitors. This forced the annulation of the election results which showed the government's candidate winning by a few percentage points
- Russian President congratulated his stooge even before the intial results were announced, to find himself later back-tracking to save face
- A hospital report showed evidence of poisoning of the oppostion presidential candidate a few months ago. The poisoning caused the candidate's face to be disfigured. Currently, there is no proof that the government was behind this act but investigations are on-going.
Stay tuned as this drama unfolds!
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