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The following email was posted on the Politics mailing list of InfoUkes. If the email is legitimate, it is another indication that a coup d'etat is in progess in Ukraine. This coup d'etat is not one in which the ruling administration is replaced, but is rather one in which under the continuing administration of president-mobster Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine is transformed from something close to a democracy to something close to a dictatorship. My bet is that the journalists whose email below pleads for help from the West are pleading in vain. The West will do nothing to help them because the West is led by the United States, and the United States wants a dictatorship in Ukraine for the same reason that it wants a dictatorship in other of its client states like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait � that reason being that dictatorships owned by the United States can be relied upon to not make trouble for the United States, whereas democracies are prone to going their own way. My expectation is that this coup d'etat is not only approved by the United States, but is even engineered by the United States. In Leonid Kuchma, the United States may be creating the Hosni Mubarak of the Slavic world. On the dimension of suppression of the press, Kuchma appears to have already surpassed Mubarak, as the Committee to Protect Journalists recently voted Kuchma's treatment of the press as four levels more severe than even Mubarak's (as can be seen in the document linked in the previous sentence). The great danger is that Leonid Kuchma has placed Ukraine on an escalating spiral in which mounting government suppression of freedom of expression elicits mounting opposition from the intelligentsia, which in turn triggers even greater government suppression, and so on up the spiral, with the final result being outright dictatorship. I go on record as predicting that if Leonid Kuchma is reelected president, then his second term in office will be marked by a string of assassinations of journalists and political opponents, than which I can conceive no worse fate for Ukraine. And I go on record too as predicting that if the Ukrainian press were truly liberated and fearless even at this late date, then Leonid Kuchma would be roundly defeated in October, this simply because the press would enquire about the legality of Leonid Kuchma's presidency having been purchased for him by foreigners in 1994, and the scandal of such an enquiry would be enough to sink his chances. Of course Kuchma has much to hide besides the manner in which he came to power, but this might by itself be enough. Kuchma is aware of his vulnerability, and thus knows that he must destroy the press in order to survive. By now, the TV station of the journalists calling for help below has possibly already been shut down, and the journalists can count themselves lucky if they have not been beaten up and if they are still out of jail. If they have escaped any such dire fate so far, they cannot count on continuing to do so as Kuchma's grip around Ukraine's throat tightens. They are now on Kuchma's list, and he will get around to them for more radical treatment as his power consolidates. If there are UKAR readers who wish to ever do something on behalf of Ukraine, the time to act is now, and the goal that needs to be achieved is to free the Ukrainian press so as to increase the chances of mobster Leonid Kuchma being defeated in the October presidential elections. Any alternative for president who is not a mobster and who allows a free press may be better than Kuchma. I am told, and I am quite willing to believe, that every other viable candidate is defective in that he or she yearns for a return to the old days of a Soviet economy. However, even a communist-economy president but without a Swiss bank account and who allows a free press may be better than a Leonid Kuchma who plunders Ukraine and who destroys a free press, because under an honest administration and with the help of a free press, the Ukrainian people will be educated out of their ignorance, whereas under a gangster and without a free press, they will continue slaves. Perhaps it will be easier for a free press to convince a communist-economy president of the advantages of free-market reforms than it will be to convince a dictator to return power to the people, particularly as in the latter case there will be no one around to do the convincing. My position, ultimately, is that a free press is more important than a president with the correct economic or political orientation, because a free press is able to steer or to correct or even to overthrow a mistaken president, whereas in the absence of a free press there is no escape from a dictator. Personally, I cannot help siding with whatever presidential candidate would if elected be least likely to order my assassination if I should wish visit Ukraine, and I do not estimate that Leonid Kuchma is that candidate. If any UKAR reader has access to George Soros, could they please ask him why he allows the man who he made President of Ukraine to transform himself into the Dictator of Ukraine. Please read also the other postings that are listed in the UKAR PRESS menu. |