Putin's Unchallenged Imperialism
By Jackson Diehl in the Washington Post
Monday, October 25, 2004; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59942-2004Oct24.html

Jackson Diehl, in his October 25 piece in the Washington Post, posits that the Ukrainian election of October 31st presents the future of Eastern Europe to a largely uninterested world. The Ukrainian presidential contest between challenger Viktor Yuschenko and Viktor Yanukovych, currently has Yuschenko, who promotes NATO and WTO membership, slightly in the lead. The greater contest, however, is that determining the direction in which Ukraine will turn in the coming years: toward the West, or toward what many have called Russia’s new, imperialist intentions. With the Russian state media brazenly campaigning for Yanukovych, allocating over $300 million in Russian government funds for his election (both directly & indirectly), and a specific endorsement from President Putin, it is expected in some circles that Yanukovych will become President, regardless of the electoral results. The recent election in Belarus, declared “free and fair” by Russian authorities, was widely considered to be fraudulent after exit polls suggested a decisive loss for the candidate whom authorities claimed earned a 77% victory. Mr. Diehl concludes with the haunting passage, “The Bush administration and other Western governments hope for [Yuschenko’s] success, but privately expect that Yanukovych will win or steal the election in a mid-November runoff. Putin, they know, will aid and abet that fraud -- and then set about integrating Ukraine into his authoritarian bloc. No one has challenged the Russian president on his aggressive imperialism -- which probably means that it will grow.”