国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

Ukraine's presidential polls backfire

By Martin Sieff (China Daily) Updated: 2014-05-26 08:03

If the US and the EU were really as passionate about promoting democracy and constitutional government as they claim to be, they would have recognized the legitimacy of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's government, which was elected for a set term by a globally recognized free and fair election and with a clear majority.

Instead, the democratic process that has at least kept Ukraine peaceful and secure since independence 22 and half years ago was heedlessly destroyed in the February coup after Yanukovych rejected the harsh terms of the economic diktat that EC negotiators had laid down for Ukraine to be associated with the EU.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has now overseen over two votes that produced clear majorities for de facto independence in two eastern regions of Ukraine. However, he appears so far to have no intention of incorporating those two new structures directly into Russia, as he did with Crimea. This move may be seen as a signal of restraint in the face of the latest US sanctions, especially as Putin has sent clear messages to Washington and NATO both that he is willing to revive dialogue and defuse tensions as long as Russia's national security interests are recognized in a region that has always been part of its heartland.

The rush to hold fresh presidential polls on terms dictated by the Kiev regime was never going to restore the bonds of mutual tolerance, compromise and trust that were necessary to hold Ukraine together. National elections on these rushed terms never had a prayer of restoring Ukraine back to the status quo of uneasy balance between the east and west of the country that had prevailed since independence.

The new presidential election was always about hypocrisy, about rushing to establish a new legitimacy, a new political reality that the democratic world could be rounded up to support.

However, Putin foiled that game plan by holding referendums on his own terms in Crimea and the two eastern Ukrainian regions first. Now, the forces in eastern Ukraine that reject the February coup in Kiev are responding with escalating violence of their own at the attempt to force Kiev's legitimacy down their throats. Nothing could demonstrate more clearly the hollowness and hypocrisy of the current Ukrainian national election process.

The author is a political columnist for the Post-Examiner chain of online newspapers in the United States and a senior fellow at the American University in Moscow.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

...
富民县| 视频| 昆明市| 荣昌县| 海盐县| 房产| 天等县| 辉县市| 松桃| 津市市| 徐水县| 余庆县| 鸡西市| 潮安县| 辽阳县| 蕲春县| 紫阳县| 扎鲁特旗| 丹棱县| 保定市| 荆州市| 察雅县| 巴林左旗| 获嘉县| 衡南县| 长武县| 密云县| 东海县| 谷城县| 广宁县| 革吉县| 灵丘县| 穆棱市| 泰来县| 汉寿县| 廉江市| 曲水县| 太白县| 清涧县| 鄯善县| 静安区|