Le Sabot Post-Moderne: Ukraine Update -- 27 January

janvier 27, 2005

Ukraine Update -- 27 January

donetsk art.jpg

Korrespondent Magazine carried this photo from the Donetsk protests. Bush holds the leash on Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, while NATO and the EU loom behind him. Subtle.

News:

- Tyhypko's "Trudovaya Ukraina" party has entered into "qualified opposition" to Yushchenko. He's a former campaign manager for Yanukovych, so this is to be expected.

- According to Yushchenko, the government is going to revisit corrupt privatizations, and expects to bring in around 2 billion dollars extra from this. Given that the budget is only 10 billion, this is a tidy sum.

- The politburo of the Social-Democrats (oligarch Medvedchuk's party) voted to go into the Opposition against Yushchenko. A senior leader and member of parliament quit the party soon after. Today, a second leader and MP, Mikhail Papiev, also left the party. The SDPU is in serious trouble. They're at about 1% in current opinion polls. 3% will be the barrier to enter Parliament in the 2006 elections.

- Poroshenko's "Solidarnost" Party (part of Our Ukraine) is sitting out the vote for Yulia Tymoshenko. Apparently the idea is to scuttle her nomination and allow the second place finisher, Poroshenko, a chance. This is the Orange Coalition's first real political division. Let's hope it mends.

- Yushchenko's Austrian doctor says his appearence will be back to normal in a couple of months.

- In another sign that Yushchenko is serious about reform, his minster for Euro integration is planning a raft of legal changes in Ukraine to prepare it for entry into the WTO. Yushchenko plans to have Ukraine in the World Trade Organization by the end of the year. Another reason for Pat Buchanan and the dwarves over at antiwar.com to hate Yushchenko.

- It was initially reported that Poroshenko's party of 18 deputies wouldn't be backing Yulia for PM. An hour and a half after that initial announcement, a second press release was, well, released. It stated that the party still hasn't reached a decision about the situation.

Posted by Discoshaman at janvier 27, 2005 03:05 AM | TrackBack

Disco,

Aren't you busy tonight. Insominia?

Why is it that the worst (and seemingly the only) criticism the Russophiles can laub at Yushchenko is that he's a Bush puppet? Come on, if you're going to smear someone with silly lies, come up with a variety to keep it interesting! Sheesh!

About the Austrian doctor's prediction: Really? His face doesn't look any better/different now than it did six or eight weeks ago. (See the close-up of Viktor and Yulia leaning heads together posted yesterday.) Will the change come on suddenly? There are rumors that Yushchenko will have plastic surgery. Anybody know anything about that?

His hair, by the way, also looks very different since the poinsoning. Wow. Just to imagine that someone could do something to you that would startle you every time you looked into the mirror... Creepy.

Posted by: Joe St at janvier 27, 2005 05:34 AM

Hey Joe,

No insomnia. I'm just a night owl. I'm alternating working on Bible study and blogging tonight, so I can at least count this as semi-productive time. :-)

Yush looks bad now, but I was at his first rally after he came back from Austria. He slurred horribly. It broke our hearts to hear him, he could barely open his mouth. He's come a long way. . .

Posted by: Discoshaman at janvier 27, 2005 05:41 AM

Well, Tymoshenko is pushing - she made it clear that the current Attorney General would be replaced. Though the really bad news is that Russian officials made it clear that they are not dropping the warrant for her arrest. How can she be an effective PM is she cannot travel to Russia for meetings?
And I am so disappointed with the Poroshenko faction - but alot can change til Mon. I am keeping my fingers crossed and wishin and hopin and prayin.

Posted by: Hello at janvier 27, 2005 06:35 AM

Regarding the poster of Bush, etc:

Why is all of the caricture "art" of Bush by the leftists so... wierdly bad? All of these cartoonish drawings that show him as a vampire or whatever (can't see the one Disco shows in this post well, but at first glance it looked like Yul Brenner in "The King and I").

There's legit criticism. There is legit satirical art. Some is insightful, some is funny, and whether I agree or disagree with the political point I can look/listen to it and go, "OK, I admit that's funny or clever."

But all the drawn carictures of Bush come from twisted, alternative-universe that's so far from reality that it loses the power of satire. And their just all really badly drawn. Like they were drawn by some drop-out from a lame-ass land-grant university art department that spends more time listening to Phish and has more skill with the water-pipe than water-colors.

Wait... I think I just answered my own question....

Posted by: Greg at janvier 27, 2005 02:55 PM