Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4127063.stm
[Ukraine elections]
This, seems to me, is one of the biggest stories of the year. Why no interest? Hundreds of thousands of people bravely took to the streets to protest a crooked election and, in the end, democracy prevailed. What a story! It also has profound implications for the way in which the world will organize itself in the next few years, as Russia seeks to allign itself with China (and possibly France?) to challenge the true democracies of the west.
|
It's a great story, so far, and there's been some good reporting about it (e.g., a piece from Kiev in The New Yorker a few weeks ago). The contrasts with Iraq are fairly glaring, alas, and point to profound weaknesses in the way that we ostensibly are trying to promote democracy around the world.
Quote:
Originally posted by Larry Davis
Seems to me it would make more sense for people to be talking about the Yukos oil auction (latest AP story here). People at least know that the Ukriane elections were happening. There has been far less attention paid to the oil takeover and yet it seems like Putin will actually pull that one off. One of Putin's own economic advisers is calling that the fraud of the year, although to be fair Ukraine would have won that award except for the whole public outcry thing ruining it all.
|
If Ukraine is the heart-warming, feel-good story about the triumph of democracy, Russia is the flip side, the cautionary tale about how democracy can go bad. Notwithstanding that he is turning the country into an authoritarian regime and removing any viable opposition to him, or perhaps because of it, he has strong support. Weimar Germany was a democracy, too.
