Practically every Western article I read on Yulia's ascension to Prime Minister had a headline something like this:
"Yushchenko Names Kremlin Antagonist As PM"
It's like the past two months never happened. These fools continue to view Ukraine only through the prism of Russia. So here's a news flash for them -- Ukraine has 48 million people, making it one of the larger countries in Europe. It's not an appendage of Russia. To borrow a line from Forrest Gump -- "It's this whole other country." LEARN that.
The real news story is that Yushchenko picked the most uncompromising and radical of the reformers in his potential PM stable.
UNRELATED NOTE:
A telling quote from Putin --
"You, of course, know well that Russia has never worked in an underhanded way in the post-Soviet space. We only did what was asked of us by the Ukrainian government in power. We only hope that we can have the same friendly relationship with you."
It's all so clear now! Russia only undermines democracy when asked to do so by the democratically-elected government of said country. And now he's offered to do the same for Yushchenko. Awfully sporting of him, really.
"The real news story is that Yushchenko picked the most uncompromising and radical of the reformers in his potential PM stable."
That is putting it mildly.
In so far as the Russian prism - imagine my shock when I read on C-SPAN that President Yuschenko's inauguration speech was "In Russian with English translation." ! If someone identified President Bush's inauguration speech as "In Mexican ..." - they would think that the person was bonkers.
It was interesting to watch the Yushchenko/Putin press conference http://www.kremlin.ru/images/2005_01_24_02.wmv
though I would have been more fascinated to see their 2 1/2 hr mtg and would like to know why the head of Gazprom was present?
Hi there!
I'm not sure why Gazrpom was there -- that's outside my jurisdiction. :-) But it makes sense, given that one of the key ties between Ukraine and Russia is energy. Ukraine relies heavily on Russia for both oil and natural gas.
Posted by: Discoshaman at janvier 25, 2005 06:09 AMAh, Putin's Russia: Communism without the red flags.
Posted by: The Zero Boss at janvier 25, 2005 06:36 PMCouldn't agree more on the sorts of statements appearing in western news.
On CBC TV yesterday I even heard the anchor end the report about the visit with Putin by saying "Ukraine is Russia's traditional ally."
Uh, what tradition would that be? The Soviet Union? The Tsarist empire? Yes, quite a tradition of alliance, indeed.
I think a country needs a tradition of independence before one can start talking about its traditional alliances.
Posted by: Matt S at janvier 25, 2005 10:38 PM