In regards to the Article "Western Agression" by John Laughland in the Nov 6 issue of the Spectator,

Mr. Laughland's view on the Ukrainian election is questionable, and here are some of the questions.

To begin with, let's look at foreign interference. Putin has stated that he's in favor of the government's candidate, has visitedUkraine to say so, and has also invited the government candidate to Russia repeatedly during the campaign. He repeated his support in a visit to Ukraine for a parade less than a week before the elections. L says it is the West that is being flagrantly biased, but no Western governments have come out in favor of anyone except "the winner of a free and fair election". What action or comment by an official European, Canadian orUS representative is comparable to Russian government partiality?

L accuses the OSCE of being "highly politicized" and committing repeated fraud, thus dismissing OSCE accusations that the Ukrainian media was biased during the campaign and a number of irregularities occurred during the vote. By contrast, he says Russians in the CIS observation mission have "carefully-detailed" opposition abuses and are being ignored. The CIS observer mission also came to the careful and detailed assessment that the recent vote inBelarus was "free and fair". Does L consider these observers less biased than the collection of European, Canadian and US volunteers in the OSCE mission? Which specific OSCE finding does he consider fraudulent or suspicious, and what less-biased source does he appeal to in support of his claim?

L accuses the opposition candidate of running the "wasteland" of Western Ukraine like a "fief". With what powers is the opposition controlling people's vote? Some local government in the area is elected, but much if it appointed by the administration, and widely despised. And what paragons of free-market capitalism make the East less of a "wasteland"? The government candidate's nativeDonetsk? The city generally makes the news for its crumbling coal industry, neck and neck with Nigeria for the worst safety record on the planet, and specifically makes news for a recent internationally-condemned steel privatization. (in which a powerful local businessman, Akhmetov, together with current President Kuchma's son-in-law, Victor Pinchuk, was awarded a privatization tender. They paid half the price offered by other steel companies, and only won because the rules of the tender were rewritten in a way that only Akhmetov could satisfy)Donetsk can't be his paragon, he must mean the "clean and prosperous" capital of Kyiv he congratulated the government candidate for creating. Oh, wait, Ukrainians there preferred the opposition candidate, 62% to 15%. And they're supporting the protests.

Finally, about the part where L calls young opposition voters "druggy skinheads" with ties to the ultra-nationalist UNA-UNSO party.

Never mind that the former chairman of the UNA-UNSO ran in the first round of this election against the opposition candidate and used insulting and slanderous attack ads against him, never mind that the opposition bloc has called the UNA-UNSO a bunch of fascists being used in a government smear campaign against their candidate, never mind that the two groups obviously hate each other--what did they ever have in common in the first place? As L pointed out, the opposition candidate has stated that he is pro-EU and pro-NATO. He is repeatedly and vociferously against xenophobia and cutting ties with Russia, UNA-UNSO's central platforms. The only thing the two groups share is the belief that the country is not being run properly, and according to some polls, 70% of Ukrainians believe that.

[UPDATE: Ok, looks like the UNA-UNSO proper still supports Yushchenko. Korchinksy, the former UNA-UNSO guy who ran for president in charge of a repugnant group called "Bratsvo" did indeed slander Yushchenko throughout the campaign. But the UNA-UNSO party still decided to back Yushchenko. I'm not entirely certain about the reason for this, but from talking with them, I think it is because the UNA-UNSO guys do not care about his policy issues as much as Kuchma and Yanukovych "selling out" to the Russians. They're old fashioned ultra-nationalists, but apparently the non-Bratsvo ones are willing to compromise.]

 L found a young man in Ukraine who is angrier at the government than he is interested in policy. Is this either surprising or scandalous? Oh, and no points to L for his own bit of slanderous innuendo in his lead-in about anti-Semitism in a student classroom. Aside from a friend's anecdote from some unspecified time a few years ago, what does L have that proves pro-opposition "young reformers" in Western Ukrainian are Jew-haters by another name?