It's getting bad. Anyone have any relatives over there? It looks like this one might get violent soon unless something drastic happens.

I was looking at the headlines today. So what the deal? The Kremlin backed guy was declared the winner but the people think the other guy won?

Sort of, but the truth is that the other guy probably did win. Exit polls showed that he had a huge lead. I know that exit polls in the States weren't exactly reliable, but it looks like there was massive fraud here to get the other guy to win.

The situation is basically this: Ukraine is split between a pro-Russian, ethnically Russian eastern half and a pro-Western, ethnically Urkainian western half. The candidates each represented one of these halves, though the incumbent prime minister supported the eastern guy, as did Putin. Media coverage was slanted heavily in favour of him, but popular support (including people in the east) tended towards the western guy, in part because of massive corruption in the existing government.

The vote came out and the eastern, pro-Russian guy won. The thing is, in the eastern half of the country, turnout was an impossibly high 96%. What they were doing is taking people with absentee ballots and riding them all over the country to vote multiple times. Election observers noted even more fradulent activity along with this nonsense.

Now people are protesting because they know who truly won the election (though many of the eastern guy's supporters are being moved into Kiev for a counter-protest). The election officials just declared the eastern guy to be the winner. Colin Powell has already said he would not accept the election results.

That's the basics. The protests are still going on and it looks like a resolution will be extremely difficult.

Damn. I wonder how they are going to sort that one out. If its true that the other guy did win, I hope that the protesters scream loud as hell until someone listens to them and things turn out right. I hate hearing stories like this about Govs pushing the people around and imposing their will on the people. I hope things get better before they get worse.

There are some reports that the guy who got elected (Yanukovych) is willing to try and negotiate with the pro-western candidate (Yushchenko). However, these might only be rumours. Besides, the only things that Yushchenko will accept are the office of prime minisiter or, at the very least, another, more closely monitored election. Seems unlikely that Yanukovych will agree to either of those. The protestors aren't planning on going anywhere, though, especially since world opinion is on their side. Yanukovych is going to have to make concessions or else there will probably be trouble.

Russia is the wildcard here. The government there is slowly developing into a frightening force to be reckoned with. Putin is crafty, taking the U.S. anti-terrorism line and using it to his own advantage. He is planning to build his own missile shield along with nuclear weapons that evade such shields. He also launches brutal attacks on Chechens in the name of fighting terrorism. Scary guy.

putin is a dirtbag. his dirty ass hands were all in iraq before we invaded. thats why he didn't want us to go in the first place. he is a worthless piece of ****.

There are some reports that the guy who got elected (Yanukovych) is willing to try and negotiate with the pro-western candidate (Yushchenko). However, these might only be rumours. Besides, the only things that Yushchenko will accept are the office of prime minisiter or, at the very least, another, more closely monitored election. Seems unlikely that Yanukovych will agree to either of those. The protestors aren't planning on going anywhere, though, especially since world opinion is on their side. Yanukovych is going to have to make concessions or else there will probably be trouble.

Russia is the wildcard here. The government there is slowly developing into a frightening force to be reckoned with. Putin is crafty, taking the U.S. anti-terrorism line and using it to his own advantage. He is planning to build his own missile shield along with nuclear weapons that evade such shields. He also launches brutal attacks on Chechens in the name of fighting terrorism. Scary guy.



.....I am hopeing that the nukes he is developing are the under ground bunker buster types that are not covered by the nuke treaties and I hope he uses them in the future to get to tunneling terrorists. I think the threat of Nuke use may be a necessary thing for terrorists and the nations that harbor them. If you harbour terorists that commit an attack then you get a mushroom. Terrorists would be run out of every country in the world in that case. It may indeed come to that in the not so distant future. I am a little leary of Putin but he is also going to be an important ally in the fight against terror.

.....I am hopeing that the nukes he is developing are the under ground bunker buster types that are not covered by the nuke treaties and I hope he uses them in the future to get to tunneling terrorists. I think the threat of Nuke use may be a necessary thing for terrorists and the nations that harbor them. If you harbour terorists that commit an attack then you get a mushroom. Terrorists would be run out of every country in the world in that case. It may indeed come to that in the not so distant future. I am a little leary of Putin but he is also going to be an important ally in the fight against terror.

Putin is going to take advantage of your country for his own gains. He is using your rhetoric to advance his own agenda. His is not an ally of anyone but himself. If you think he's your friend you are mistaken.

Putin is going to take advantage of your country for his own gains. He is using your rhetoric to advance his own agenda. His is not an ally of anyone but himself. If you think he's your friend you are mistaken.



....Like I said, I am leary of him.

....Like I said, I am leary of him.

Do you really want everyone to start using nukes? That's like opening up Pandora's box.