Dark days for the rebellion.
And it was even legit.....I wonder if Yanukovich's American political consultant was an Obama '08 lackey?
Just goes to show you my previous arguments for economics uber alles. The terrible economic morass that Ukraine is in was enough to keep the western minded Ukrainians from voting in large enough droves to offset this travesty. This will be compounded when Moscow relaxes it's stringent energy costs that has frequently been a point of contention between the two countries; a solution that Yanukovich has promised he will solve. For many, the choice whether to get affordable electricity in winter vs Western style competition was a major factor.
What does this mean? For starters, I could say it is a perfect example of the inability of "the march to democracy" to be an inevitable process ; but Putin himself proved that in 2000 (as well as Hitler in the 30's). The next democratic target for Russia will be Georgia. Obviously, Georgia will be a tougher nut to crack due to the massive displeasure over Russia, but it could still assist those politicians that want to take a less confrontational stance with Putin (Interesting article that discusses the displeasure of Yanukovich over Georgian observers and an opposition Georgian MP who sounds a little appeasing of Yanukovich's concerns and seems to imply some sort of willingness to warm up to Russian's Ukranian lackeys ). I think if we're going to exploit any of the gains since the end of the Cold War Obama needs to remain committed to propping up the Georgian government and to do everything to satisfy security concerns by those within Russia's "Near Abroad" (a concern especially felt by the Baltic States during the ABM fiasco). Romania's announcement to hold intercepters is a good start, but we still have a long way to go to undo the lost of confidence .
