Check Out our Newswire Feature: Another Threat to Yushchenko
Filed under: Ukraine
Just in case you hadn't noticed, Publius Pundit is really three separate blogs. In this column, the largest, we feature brief focus posts on major breaking developments. In the narrow column to the right are two more blogs. In the top half of the middle column, headed "Recent Articles," are longer analytical pieces dealing with issues that are simply topical rather than necessarily breaking news. In the bottom half of the middle column, headed "Democracy News," is another breaking news blog, with even shorter commentary on issues that don't make it to the large page, including links to the source material you can read for yourself. We scour the Internet to bring you a convenient daily index of the most important democracy-related news stories that we don't have space or time to focus on with extended commentary here.
Click the jump to read more about one of the stories you'll find in the newswire blog right now, about a rumored threat to the life of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko as he struggles to fend of the Kremlin's neo-Soviet advances against his country.
Our newswire blog contains (among many others) a story in the Russian newspaper Kommersant about a renewed plot to assassinate pro-democracy Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, and other members of his "Orange Coalition," in the wake of Yushchenko's stunning victory in his showdown with Russian puppet Viktor Yanokovich for control of the country, forcing early elections rather than allowing power politics to dominate. The Ukrainian people support early elections by a wide margin, but Yanokovich and his gang of thugs are still attempting to stonewall the process.
The article from Kommersant is quite depressing, and not even mostly because of this new news about evil doers behind the shadowy walls of the Kremlin. As Publius Pundit readers know, we reported some time ago that Kommersant, one of the last vestiges of Kremlin-critical journalism in Russia, had been purchased by a Kremlin-friendly oligarch, resulting in significant immediate staff defections. In reporting the new threats against Yushchenko Kommersant stated in an anonymous article: "Apparently, the president's supporters began putting pressure on the ruling coalition, seeing the hard line of the Party of Regions. A small detail was missing, though: rumors about a plotted conspiracy. [The remarks of Valery Geletei, head of Ukraine's main service for law-enforcement bodies, announcing the discovery of the threats] filled that gap." In suggesting, without any evidence, that Yushchenko is simply inventing this threat to gain leverage over pro-Russian Yanukovich, without even mentioning the undisputed earlier attempt to kill Yushchenko with Dioxin just in the middle of his bid for the presidency (the photograph above shows the heroic president before and after the attack -- rival Viktor Yanukovich remains in the pink of health), Kommersant appears to be indulging, as many feared it might, in pro-Kremlin propaganda.
The English version is condensed from the Russian original, which plays up the issue even further, stating that Yushchenko's supporters felt "they must make supporters Victor Yanukovich more compliant," and dwelling on Yushchenko's recent dismissals of three judges from the country's supreme court without acknowledging that focus on this issue is an obvious way to distract attention from Yanovkovich's obstinant refusal to press forward with elections he's already agreed to. There's nothing wrong with reporting and questioning Yuschenko's moves with the court (however, such moves haven't disqualified Franklin Roosevelt from his ten cents worth of national honor in the USA), but the body has 18 members so what happens to three is hardly determinative, and international observers will be all over Ukraine for the elections, so Yushchenko will hardly be able to use to court to secure a fraudulent victory. Kommersant didn't report that. What's more, surely it's reasonable to suggest that, given the Kremlin's heavy handed tactics all across Eastern Europe, Yushchenko might actually be right in believing that these judges are corrupt. But Kommersant's story didn't mention that possibility either.
Naturally, if the Kremlin were smart, it would not allow Kommersant to simply or suddenly turn into a screed of relentless propaganda; rather, it would only use that vehicle occasionally and only subtly, when important, thus attempting to preserve Kommersant's image of objectivity.
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