The accompanying video demonstrates Leonid Kuchma's ability to deliver fine words.

��������� ������ ����� ��������� �� ������ � ������ ���������� ����������� 20.11.2004 22:32:11 (�������� � 23:32)	President Leonid Kuchma addresses the nation on the occasion of the runoff election 20-Nov-2004 22:32:11 (updated at 23:32)
������� ���� � ��������� ����� �� ���������.	Main point � the Administration will not permit revolution.
������ �����, ��������� ������:	Leonid Kuchma, President of Ukraine:
� ����� ������ �� ���������, ��� �������� ����� � ������ ��������� ��������� ��������.  ��� ����� ���� ������� �� �������.  ���� ����� �������� �� ���, ��� ������� ����� ���������� ������� �������.  ���� ������ �� �������� � ������ �� ���������.  �� ������� ����������, ��� ��������� � �������, ������� ������� ���� ò³º¿ �������, ��� ��������� ��������.	� The administration will never allow political logic in Ukraine to be dictated by an aggressive minority.  Around me can be heard calls for the use of force.  I find it laughable to see those who today incite their willing countrymen.  They have understood nothing, and learned nothing.  The portion of society that finds itself a minority must recognize the choice of that portion which constitutes the majority.
����������� ����:	Click to play video:
Leonid Kuchma's lecture appears above on tinted background.  Remaining text is that of Channel 5. Originally published on the Channel 5 web site at www.5tv.com.ua/newsline/119//2639/

It appears, however, that Leonid Kuchma might profit from instruction as to what objects in the real world his fine words may be properly applied.  Such instruction could teach him that much of the world perceives him as heading that aggressive minority which fails to recognize the choice of the majority, a perception that he can read in the Preliminary Statement of The International Election Observation Mission (IEOM), which is a joint undertaking of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the European Parliament (EP), and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly:

Preliminary Statement, Second Round: in English   originally at www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2004/11/3811_en.pdf; and in Ukrainian   originally at www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2004/11/3811_uk.pdf.

The IEOM noted egregious corruption in every part of the election process, the Kuchma-Yanukovych abuse of "absentee certificates" perhaps leaping out as extravagantly pernicious despite the IEOM's restrained language:

The second round of voting was compromised by significant shortcomings:   [...] Some citizens, whose livelihood depends directly or indirectly upon the State, were placed under duress to acquire and hand over to their superiors an �absentee voting certificate�.  Observers reported that these documents were collected in the workplace on an organised basis.  Hence these citizens were prevented from exercising their suffrage rights, as the acquisition of a certificate automatically excludes the voter from voting in the polling station where originally registered; In other regions, the failure to account properly for the number of �absentee voting certificates� issued and used could have facilitated multiple voting, thereby having a potential impact on the integrity of the results.  Concern for this issue was underscored by observations of a high numbers of voters using absentee voting certificates, some being transported by bus in a number of regions;   [...] International Election Observation Mission (IEOM), Preliminary Statement, Second Round, originally at  www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2004/11/3811_en.pdf)

But if, as is evident to the entire free world, the 21-Nov-2004 runoff election was stolen by Viktor Yanukovych, then he has no more right to occupy the office of President than would a bandit who commandeered that same office at the point of a gun, and he is equally subject to arrest by any Ukrainian authority, and in fact by any citizen of Ukraine.

And if Viktor Yanukovych is a bandit who has usurped authority, then what does that make you but a bandit's accomplice, who also are subject to arrest by any Ukrainian authority, and indeed by any citizen of Ukraine?  And what does it make you except a Kremlin apparatchik who does not espouse European values, indeed who is hostile to European values, and who blocks European attempts to do good?  What does it make you except a bumbler who cannot think ahead beyond his own move, and whose historical role is to preside over the further disintegration of the Russian empire and the further collapse of Russian prestige and influence?  What does it make you except a man who, finding himself in a position of power in which he could do good, instead prefers to throw in his lot with murderers of journalists, with gangsters, with usurpers who destroy the well-being of their own people for the sake of plunder?




Lubomyr Prytulak