[ramonrive]

It seems most likely that this die hard Moscow , old style Commie will become Ukraine's President on Sunday .
A young thug , but now a far more clever and cutely reformed power assassin , this deceiver has remodelled himself cleverly since he was kicked out in 2004 for a rigged presidential election orchestrated by the Kremlin .
I wonder if Yulia will find a way to become PM and "amazingly " forget her differences with the wily old gaol bird .
Somehow I think this is Game Set and Match to Moscow for the moment . Perhaps Fatty Safin should study how to manage a losing situation and turn a natural loser into a manufactured winner .





Viktor Yanukovich, a former prime minister, has made a comeback in Ukrainian politics after being labelled a Kremlin stooge when he initially won an allegedly rigged election in 2004.

Born on July 9, 1950 to a working class family in the Donetsk coal-mining region, Yanukovich is a native Russian speaker and a mechanical engineer by training.

He had a turbulent youth, including two spells in prison for violent offences, which were erased from his record in 1978.

He began his working life as a transport executive in the coal-mining industry, reaching senior managerial posts. He became governor of Donetsk Region in 1997.

Yanukovich became prominent in national politics in 2002 when the-then president Leonid Kuchma named him as prime minister.

'Political villain'

Yanukovich was cast as the political villain in 2004, after he was congratulated prematurely by Russia in an election international observers said was rigged.

He made a comeback in 2006 when Viktor Yushchenko, the-then president, appointed him prime minister after "Orange" parties failed to form a coalition.

But he left office after those parties beat his Regions Party and its allies in a snap 2007 election.

Although his Party of the Regions has an alliance with the Kremlin's United Russia party, Yanukovich has been careful since 2004 to avoid appearing too close to Russia.

He says he favours a strong, independent, neutral Ukraine.

"I have done everything to stop this madness for the past five years," Yanukovich said in a recent television interview.

"The aim of the so-called Orange Revolution... was to weaken Russia but not to strengthen our state."

Fight against poverty

Yanukovich has dismissed Ukraine's membership of the Nato military alliance, but has also called for Ukraine to improve relations with the European Union.

The 59-year-old has campaigned under the slogan "There is a leader, there is a state," and has struck a chord with voters by berating Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, his rival, for ignoring the people.

"I think we should unite to fight against crisis and poverty," he said in early 2010. "The utter poverty of millions of Ukrainians is the real enemy of Ukraine."

He has promised to correct what he terms the mistakes of the past five years, which have seen repeated rows with Russia over energy supplies and a deep economic crisis.

The turnaround in fortunes for Yanukovich has been helped by political deadlock in Kiev which has frustrated the EU and Russia.

His campaign has also been helped by US political consultant Paul Manafort, whose business partner helped manage John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

He has received support from the party of Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, attending a party congress in St Petersburg last year.

[Lonewolf74]

Another failed state is joining the club...

V.

[ramonrive]

Mother Ukraine at the Cross Roads .
Damned whichever way it turns . And Bankrupt .
Good Bye Kyiv . Tomorrow you become a Riussian toy .




Tensions are rising in Ukraine ahead of Sunday's presidential contest, with both candidates threatening to send thousands of supporters into the streets of the capital after the balloting.



Kyiv authorities said Friday they have received a permit application from supporters of Russia-friendly opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych for a rally of up to 50,000 people around the city the day after the vote.



Meanwhile, incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko instructed Interior Ministry troops to secure the Central Election Commission, which was surrounded by some 250 burly Yanukovych partisans who said they were there to protect the integrity of the election.



Yanukovych's Kremlin-backed election as president five years ago was contested in the mass protests called the Orange Revolution, and his win was thrown out on grounds of fraud. He appears confident of victory and determined to protect it this time.



Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused Yanukovych Thursday of plotting to steal the vote and vowed to stage mass street protests in a replay of the 2004 Orange demonstrations.



The fiery and glamorous Tymoshenko helped lead the Orange revolt, which rallied hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians demanding economic and political reform.



Some analysts say Tymoshenko is trailing, and she is calling for demonstrations to protest the widespread fraud that she predicts will take place.



But it's not clear whether Ukrainians, exhausted by years of political turmoil, will answer the call of their bitterly divided political leaders and take to the streets.



"People no longer believe in politicians and they won't go to the Maidan," said 37-year-old businessman Pyotr Ridno, referring to Kyiv's central square where tens of thousands rallied for weeks in late 2004.



"Brazen and flagrant fraud by Yanukovych could rouse the Ukrainians, but they are unlikely to go for that after what happened in 2004."



Others said they would rally to defend the Orange revolt.



"If we do not help Yulia to win, then dark days await Ukraine and we will return to the past," said Nina Krikun, a 70-year-old retiree. "My whole life was spent in Soviet poverty. And I will do everything to ensure my grandchildren live in a different Ukraine."



Yanukovych won handily in the first round of voting last month, 35 per cent to 25 per cent. Tymoshenko is expected to close at least some of the gap by picking up votes splintered among candidates in the first round.



Political observers say that Tymoshenko isn't likely to concede the race easily.



"Regardless of what the gap between them is - one and a half per cent or 10 per cent - she will not accept defeat," said Mikhail Pogribinsky, director of the Kyiv Center of Political Research and Conflict Studies. "Then we will enter a new era of instability until a broad agreement is reached between the winner and the loser."



Both candidates have strong geographic constituencies. Tymoshenko is popular in western Ukraine, while Yanukovych is the standard-bearer for the east, centre of the country's large ethnic Russian minority.



"There remains a deep rift right along the Dnepr River - the southeast versus the northwest," said Sergei Markov, a Russian lawmaker and election monitor, referring to the river that runs through Kyiv.



"The new president will need to mend these two camps in order to become not just the president of western Ukraine but all of Ukraine," he said.



As opposing parties trade increasingly bitter accusations, Yushchenko expressed concern that Ukraine's democracy was eroding.



"With every passing day, the situation is becoming ever more intolerable. Unfortunately, we are moving away from European democratic norms," Yushchenko said Friday in an unscheduled government meeting attended by top security officials.



Ukraine's acting interior minister, a Tymoshenko loyalist, said Friday that about 2,000 former police and security guards have arrived in Kyiv to serve as muscle for Yanukovych. Acting Minister Yury Lutsenko said the massing of so many security veterans raises concerns about election unrest.



Yanukovych's spokesman declined to comment on Lutsenko's statement.



The campaigns of both candidates were to culminate Friday evening in rallies at two separate Kyiv squares one block apart. Both were expected to draw thousands of supporters, raising fears of clashes.



Each camp has accused the other of planning to steal or disrupt the election.



On Wednesday, Yanukovych supporters helped pass amendments to the election law repealing a requirement that representatives of both candidates be present to supervise the vote count.



Tymoshenko charged that Yanukovych will use the new law to eject her supporters from the polls, opening the door for ballot-box stuffing and fraudulent counts.



On Friday, Tymoshenko's camp appealed to the constitutional Court to have the law overturned, but no ruling is expected for several weeks.



The head of the European People's Party raised questions about the amendment.



"I am very concerned about the last-minute changes made to the electoral law of Ukraine," the party's president, Wilfried Martens, said in a statement Friday.



Martens said the new rules were likely to increase opportunities for fraud in Sunday's vote.



Yanukovych insisted the changes in the law were needed to prevent Tymoshenko's appointees from boycotting the count in Yanukovych's strongholds and invalidating the affected ballots.



Yushchenko, who signed the law Thursday, said Friday it would prevent any attempted disruption.



"I contend that this makes the electoral process more democratic," he said.

[Koshka]

Originally Posted by ramonrive

Mother Ukraine

Sounds very amusing from your mouth

[ramonrive]

But it's the literal truth , as you know .

[statajack]

The shit has started already -

"Oleksandr Turchynov, The campaign manager for presidential candidate Yuliya Tymoshenko, on Feb. 7 announced that its party representative and secretary of a polling precinct in Ivano Frankivsk Oblast has been found dead."

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/58848/

[elane-ellie]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf74

Another failed state is joining the club...

V.

Originally Posted by statajack

The shit has started already -

And all this might be so funny if it was not that sad guys.
I wan't no one to get into panic but 'average Ukrainians' think whoever it is becomes a President, it would end in bloodshed

[ramonrive]

I will stick my neck out on this one and say that there will be only limited and staged trouble .
I think the two of them might be stage managing matters because I still believe that both remain Moscow stooges and Putin puppets .
The two of them will come to an agreement and hand Naftogaz to Gazprom fairly quickly . Moscow will then bail the country out of Bankruptcy and make their proteges look good --- for a time .
I am just guessing .

[statajack]

Originally Posted by elane-ellie

And all this might be so funny if it was not that sad guys.
I wan't no one to get into panic but 'average Ukrainians' think whoever it is becomes a President, it would end in bloodshed

This is the fundamental difficulty with the Ukrainian division. East and west. You can't imagine a more polarised situation in Europe.

It begs the question, should Ukraine split down the middle and become two countries! This would solve the never ending tug of war, and provide a far better chance of longterm stable political activity in each territory. Kyiv could be Western Ukraine's capital, and Donetsk for the East.

But of course it won't happen. Far too practical and sensible to be seriously discussed.

I recall when Yanukovich was just about to lose the prime minister's job in 2007. There was a sudden land grab around Kyiv at very cheap prices purported to be mainly by his own gang of stooges. Besides his general awkwardness and inarticulate presentations in the public eye, this land grab simply reflects the way things will be in the future. How sad after the Orange Revolution promised so much.

My thoughts go to those who now see at least five years of political regression and an old style bloc mentality.

[dzerassa]

Originally Posted by statajack

T Kyiv could be Western Ukraine's capital, and Donetsk for the East.

.

what what? ancient russian city will become capital of western ukraine??? lviv is their place.

киев-мать городов русских