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| quote: | Originally posted by emc^2
BUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!  
I'm not wasting any more of my time, talking to you. Anti-Georgian actions, attempts to rig Ukrainian elections, clear russian mafia-style "pressing" - e.g. political/economic extortion, cutting off gas right before the new year, all these things are obvious even to retarded mouse, stashed away in some basement of Chernobyl lab, it's brain jellified by radiation and healthy dose of idiocy, not very different from the one you're spewing here. And here you are, with your head shoved so far up your ass, I can't even see your torso, claiming that benevolent Russia is only "helping its neighbors at it's own expense".
Fuck that bullshit. The only time Russia gives a dime is when it knows it has a dollar to gain. And it doesn't have to be monetary - it can be pollitical.
Fuck you, your skewed logic, the horse you rode in on, and mental myopia exceeding any measurable grading. Responding to anymore of your hillariously outlandish statements would only prolong your stay on top of the imaginary soap box, where you ramble off your daft statements and think someone gives a shit about some Russack's propaganda-soaked views.
Thank you for such a clear proof that you sir, are a 100%, GRADE-A, certified cretin. Bravo!
amazing...  |
OK, ******, here's some evidence for you:
ADL Protests March of Latvian Waffen SS
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/3346_52.asp
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ADL Protests March of Latvian Waffen SS
New York, NY, March 17, 1999…The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) protested the march of hundreds of veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS through Riga, saying it was outrageous that the March 16 event had official government sanction.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
We are outraged that a march in Riga of hundreds of veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS had official government sanction. This event, which we have protested in the past, takes on greater significance since the Latvian Parliament designated March 16 as Veterans Day, the day when the Latvian 15th and 19th Divisions (known as the Latvian Waffen SS) first fought Russian troops during World War II.
We have made it clear to the Government of Latvia that it must exhibit leadership and speak out against such commemorative activities that insult the memories of the victims of Nazi atrocities and bring shame on Latvians today. We are heartened by President Guntis Ulmanis’ real efforts to oppose such tainted celebrations by prohibiting officials and members of the armed forces to participate, calling on the parliament to reverse its decision and working to promote Holocaust education in Latvia.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
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Latvian President Rehabilitates Nazism
http://www.voltairenet.org/article30079.html
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On March 16, 2005, a Waffen SS demonstration took place in the capital of a state that recently became a member of the European Union and NATO: Latvia. Authorities decided to allow it and to repress the citizens who protested. Far from being an isolated action, this event represents the culmination of a process, which aims at denying the disappearance of Nazism and rehabilitating it, led by the president of the Republic, Vaira Vike-Freiberga and openly financed by the Embassy of the United States. It takes place after Nazi parties have assumed power in different “democratized” states like, for instance, Ukraine.
The events of March 16, 2005, in Riga (Latvia) have inflamed the feelings in Eastern Europe and Russia but it is very unlikely that the Atlantist press (that of western Europe and the European community) will make any reference to them. Actually, the facts speak for themselves and reflect an inadmissible aspect of NATO and the European Union since its expansion on May 1, 2004.
On the initiative of the Nazi association Club 415, and for the fifth consecutive year although for the first time in the heart of NATO and the European Union, several hundreds of Waffen SS marched in the center of the capital. The demonstration, which was authorized by the municipal council of Riga, was protected by security forces, while people who were peacefully protesting against it were brutally repressed and some of them submitted to interrogation.
This case is not about a traditional clash between right-wing skinheads and the extreme left but a political act that emerges from a deep reflection, personally organized by the president of the Republic and that marks the culmination of a quick process of Nazi rehabilitation. It is not a repugnant provocation with a domestic effect either but an international strategy, organized by NATO, which deliberately gives guarantees to clandestine organizations that have to be acknowledged for their contribution to the de-Sovietization of Europe and which are already linked to several governments, especially in the «orange» Ukraine.
In order to understand what is at stake in this game, it is necessary to go back in time.
During World War II, the Nazis created 37 divisions of Waffen Schutzstaffel (Waffen SS) of which only 12 were comprised exclusively by Germans [1] . Most of the members of the divisions were recruited among the so-called «Aryan» populations of the occupied or annexed countries. Although the Latvians were not all considered «Aryan», they were massively recruited. Out of 900,000 Waffen SS, almost 150,000 were Latvians thus being the largest foreign contingent while their country, Latvia, only had two million inhabitants. The Latvians were mainly placed in the 15th Infantry Division, which was the most decorated non-German Waffen SS unit. It was them who entrenched themselves in Berlin and engaged in the last military actions of the Third Reich.
The Latvian SS did not fight to defend their country but mainly against the Resistance in Russia and Belarus. Most of them were volunteers, although, in 1944, they were joined by some recruits who had been forced to enlist.
On the other hand, other Latvians - nearly 130,000 - enlisted to fight against the Axis (Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy and Japan). Most of them fought in the Red Army that liberated their country from Nazism. After the negotiations among the Allies, Latvia, like other Baltic states, was absorbed by the Soviet Union.
Even before the end of World War II, the British secret services recruited agents among the Nazi war criminals (specially members of the Arajs Kommando) to fight Communism and infiltrated them in Sweden with the help of the SMT, the local secret service. Thus, an SS unit was formed by 1,500 men under the command of Colonel Osis, aiming at launching an attack against the Soviets. However, this idea was abandoned after the Nuremberg Trial labeled the Waffen SS and all its sections as «criminal organizations». In 1949, these agents were transferred to Hamburg (to the German zone occupied by the British) where they would be trained by the MI6 - British Secret Intelligence Service - («Jungle Operation»). The «best» elements received an additional training in Great Britain. They soon became part of what would become NATO’s «stay-behind» network, jointly directed by Great Britain and the United States [2]. Several parachuting and infiltration operations in espionage and sabotage missions took place but they all failed, causing a cruel repression by the Soviets. Eventually, this method was abandoned in 1952 when it was replaced by psychological operations [3] .
Those networks remained active during the entire Cold War period. In 1997, Germany revealed that it was still giving pensions to 50,000 former SS or their rightful successors, spread around the world. Thus, Reinhard Heydrich’s widow (he was the architect of the «final solution») or Heinz Barth (responsible for the massacre of Oradur-sur-Glane) continue to receive salaries from the German government in spite of their crimes [4] .
From the Anglo-Saxon point of view, this investment was not useless as it provided a framework to assume power after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And that process is far from over. Thus, when during the recent orange «revolution» [5] , agents of these networks - regrouped in the heart of the Congress of the Ukrainian Nationalists (KUN) and the Pan-Ukrainian Party of Liberty (Svoboda, former SNPU) - joined «Our Ukraine» - the so-called democratic coalition of Viktor Yuschenko and gave it the necessary political structure - there was absolutely no doubt about the Nazi identity of these groups. The first one explicitly includes in all its documents the phrase: «Facción Stefan Bandera» («Faction, Stefan, Flag») while the second one uses the trident and the swastika as symbols. Not to mention the friends of Mrs. Timoschenko (Ukraine’s Foreign Minister): the UNA-UNSO, a paramilitary organization created after the 1991 putsch in Moscow that is comprised of more than 1,000 combatants, men who went to fight in Croatia with the CIA and later together with the insurgents in Chechnya and Georgia.
Of these groups, only the Svoboda (Freedom) has been kept inactive after its leader, Oleh Tyhnybok praised those who, during World War II, had «cleared the country of Jews and Russians» and urged everyone to follow their example returning «Ukraine to the Ukrainians» and «setting the country free from the Muscovite Jews that exploit it» [6] . They were very careful not to show swastikas during the orange «revolution» that was televised when most of the paid demonstrators had been recruited in these Nazi organizations. Anyway, the KUN and the UNA-NAS have been considered appropriate, or «clean», interlocutors, known for such a long time that the general secretary of the European Union and NATO, Spain’s Javier Solana, accepted to talk to them.
What is happening today - it be in Europe or anywhere else like Lebanon, for instance, where the Falangists are presented as defenders of democracy - has nothing to do with the expansion of freedom of which President George W. Bush boasts, but with the continuation of the worst of policies that began with the Cold War and no longer has any obstacles.
In this perspective, the MI6 and the CIA took control in Latvia where, due to the post-Soviet chaos, they put their men ahead the state. In the country, the disillusioned population speaks of the «gang of foreigners», reported journalist Rumania Ougartchinska in her last work [7] . An example of that is the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (SAB) [8], in charge - above all - of defending democracy, which is headed by Janis Kazocinu, who is actually a general of the British who was appointed military attaché in Riga during the independence and then deputy of the Chief of Staff. He only acquired the Latvian citizenship when he was granted the appointment.
Professor Vaira Vike-Freiberga plays an essential role in this mechanism. The family of this Canadian, who fled Latvia when the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler fell, was linked to the Nazi agents of NATO’s stay-behind networks through a clandestine association destined to the Diaspora: the Hawks of Daugava River (Daugavas Vanagi). Meanwhile, the family of her husband, Imants Freibergs, was linked to the MI6 in Germany at the end of World War II. Vike-Freiberga, Psychology professor at the University of Toronto, specialist in the influence of drugs on human behavior, settled in Riga in early 1999 and acquired the Latvian citizenship. Then, in the spring, she was elected President of the Republic, winning a second term four years later.
During the last years, President Vike-Freiberga has devoted herself to re-writing European history. In her opinion, Latvia was successively occupied by the Soviets, the Germans and again by the Soviets. Also according to her, the Latvians who joined the SS did it only to find an ally to liberate their country. In short, their crimes were comparable. For that, she based her reasoning in a peculiar interpretation of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, which would have been the result of the totalitarian nature of the Nazi and Communist regimes. Today’s Germany could not be held responsible for the Nazi crimes but today’s Russia would always be responsible for crimes of Stalinism.
However, this interpretation does not reflect reality: the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact is, above all, an extension of the Munich Accords (Germany, France, Italy, and United Kingdom) to determine the areas of influence in the East after the distribution of Czechoslovakia among Germany, Poland and Hungary. In addition, it is necessary to integrate the role of Latvia itself during that period. Finally, we are astonished by the fact that she ignored the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Europe from the dun plague (the Fascists wore dun and black shirts), and described as traitors those Latvians who joined the Red Army. Anyway, the new Riga credo consists in presenting the Soviets as devils and to rehabilitate the Nazis who fought them.
In January 2005, the Latvian government published a work entitled History of Latvia: 20th Century; the book openly says that it was printed with the financial assistance of the US Embassy and its launching took place during a press conference of the president of the Republic. Among other things, we are surprised to read in the book that the camp of Salaspils, where the Nazis carried out medical experiments with children and 90,000 people were killed, was simply a «corrective working camp» and that the Waffen SS were heroes of the struggle against the Soviet occupying forces.
This book, as well as other school handbooks, cause rage among the Russian Parliament members and government and also in many countries of Eastern and Central Europe.
That is why Israel and Russia officially asked Latvia not to authorize the meeting of the Waffen SS on March 16. However, their petition was rejected.
Finally, let us underline that Latvia simultaneously joined NATO and the European Union during its expansion in May 2004, and much of that happen due to Washington’s dictates. For fifty years, the European Union has been the result of the combined willingness of the United States to anchor the western part to the Atlantist bloc to stop the Russian influence and the Europeans’ efforts to unite instead of destroying themselves. Today, the western Europeans no longer have to be protected from the «red danger» and Nazism is rehabilitated. The Union no longer represents peace.
From that moment on, it is easy to understand that in the middle of the referendum about the European Constitutional Treaty, the Atlantist media does not want to acknowledge the facts although, in spite of everything, there was a news wire of the France Press (AFP) news agency which presented the demonstration as a commemoration of «the former Latvian combatants that were forced to enlist in the German ranks of the Waffen SS during World War II»; it was a «homage to those legionary soldiers». The AFP did not describe as democrats those who opposed the demonstrators but as «pro-Russian radicals» [9] .
[1] Data from 1944
[2] «Stay-behind : les réseaux d’ingérence américains», by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire, August 20, 2001
[3] See: MI6, Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service, by Stephen Dorril, Chapter 16, The Free Press, 2000
[4] « War criminals get pensions », Associated Press, February 7, 1997
[5] «Ukraine : la rue contre le peuple», Voltaire, November 29, 2004
[6] « Ukraine : Ultra-right groups support Yushchenko », by Justus Leicht, The Guardian, December 15, 2004
[7] KGB et Cie, à l’assaut de l’Europe by Roumania Ougartchinska, Anne Carrère Publishing House, 2005
[8] Satversmes Aizsardzibas Biroja
[9] « 20 arrestations lors de la marche en mémoire des Letttons enrôlés dans les SS », AFP, March 16, 2005, 14h08
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Latvian SS march sparks clashes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4353997.stm
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Latvia police have made dozens of arrests after pro-Russian activists tried to bloc a march of SS veterans and young nationalists in Riga.
The veterans had fought against Soviet troops on the side of Hitler's Germany in World War II.
The march in the capital was sanctioned by the Latvian authorities and took place amidst heavy police presence.
But it was interrupted by skirmishes which broke out as marchers came across the anti-fascists' human chain.
The protesters, mostly from the pro-Russian Rodina or Motherland organisation, were wearing striped clothes and yellow stars of David in a reference to the SS atrocities in Latvia, which lost 90% of its Jewish population in World War II.
Riga city council deputy Aleksandrs Gilmans told the Russian RIA agency by phone from a police station that almost all of the protesters had been detained, including himself.
Police put the number of the detainees at around 25 and say arrests were made on both sides.
War controversy
After the clashes, the veterans and their supporters from the nationalist Klubs-415 youth group proceeded to lay flowers at the statue of Freedom in the centre of Riga.
Former members of the Latvian Waffen SS Legion, formed during the German occupation of Latvia, have been staging similar events since the country regained independence in 1991.
Many had joined the Germans because they saw them as liberators after a brief, but brutal, Soviet occupation of Latvia between 1939 and 1941.
But Latvia also had a large-scale guerrilla movement that fought against both the Germans and the Soviets during and after World War II.
The resurgence of SS veterans is causing outrage among Latvia's large Russian-speaking population, which includes ethnic Jews.
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Care to read more? Russia being too dictatorship-like by speaking out on behalf of ethnic Russians in Baltic countries?
Protests mark Latvia's EU entry
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3677383.stm
| quote: |
Ethnic Russians in Latvia held a huge rally in defence of their language rights as the ex-Soviet nation formally joined the EU with nine other states.
At least 20,000 marched peacefully through Riga wearing the label "alien" in English to protest at a law curbing the use of Russian in education.
All schools must teach mainly in Latvian under the EU-approved law.
Russian-speakers make up almost a third of Latvia's population and less than half have been given citizenship.
We want the world to hear us, but not in the Latvian language," Daria Aozlova, an 18-year-old student, told AP news agency.
"We are not celebrating [EU entry] today, because we are angry. We want to learn in our language."
Another demonstrator, 49-year-old businessman Andrei Merkushev, said the demonstration was not anti-EU.
"The EU celebration is my celebration too but I had to choose and this is more important to me," he said.
'Backed by Europe'
The demonstrators, some of whom had arrived in the capital by bus specially for the occasion, sang the anthem of the Russian-language movement, a version of Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall.
They gathered at the Soviet-era Victory Monument, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany but is seen by many Latvians as a symbol of the start of Soviet oppression.
Recent parades by Latvia's Waffen SS veterans have added to the country's ethnic tensions.
Under the education reform passed in February, at least 60% of classes must be taught in Latvian in public schools, including those catering for Russophones, come the new school year in September.
Only on Friday, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga went on Latvian radio to defend the new language law and accuse Russophone protesters of seeking to discredit the country on its day of EU entry.
"Europe has weighed us, measured us, assessed us," she said.
"Our laws, in every respect, from every side, have been examined and found to be compatible with human rights. Europe is not going to reject us, whether or not our schoolchildren protest in the streets."
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OH, WAIT ... WHO ELSE is restoring nazi movement in post-Soviet states?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3585272.stm
Estonia unveils Nazi war monument
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An Estonian town has unveiled a controversial monument to honour those who fought with Nazi forces against the Soviet Union in World War II.
The monument depicts an Estonian soldier in German military uniform.
The local authorities in the western town of Lihula said they wanted to honour those Estonians who had to choose between the two sides.
But the Estonian Prime Minister, Juhan Parts, described the monument as a provocation.
An investigation is underway into whether it could incite political hostilities.
'Less evil one'
About 2,000 people attended the unveiling ceremony on Friday.
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Nazi movements in Ukraine?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index....text=va&aid=318
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OH, its ALLEGEDLY ONLY Russia that meddles with post-Soviet republics:
U.S. money has helped opposition in Ukraine
http://www.signonsandiego.com/union..._1n11usaid.html
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WASHINGTON – The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine, paying to bring opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to meet U.S. leaders and helping to underwrite an exit poll indicating he won last month's disputed runoff election.
U.S. officials say the activities don't amount to interference in Ukraine's election, as Russian President Vladimir Putin alleges, but are part of the $1 billion the State Department spends each year trying to build democracy worldwide.
No U.S. money was sent directly to Ukrainian political parties, the officials say. In most cases, it was funneled through organizations such as the Eurasia Foundation or through groups aligned with Republicans and Democrats that organized election training, with human rights forums or with independent news outlets.
But officials acknowledge that some of the money helped train groups and individuals opposed to the Russian-backed government candidate – people who now call themselves part of the "Orange Revolution."
For example, one group that received grants through U.S.-funded foundations is the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, whose Web site has a link to Yushchenko's home page under the heading "partners." Another project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development brought an official with Ukraine's Center for Political and Legal Reforms to Washington, D.C., last year for a three-week training session on political advocacy.
"There's this myth that the Americans go into a country and, presto, you get a revolution," said Lorne Craner, a former State Department official who leads the International Republican Institute, which received $25.9 million last year to encourage democracy in Ukraine and more than 50 other countries.
"It's not the case that Americans can get 2 million people to turn out on the streets," Craner said. "The people themselves decide to do that."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "There's accountability in place. We make sure that money is being used for the purposes for which it's assigned or designated."
Since the Ukrainian Supreme Court invalidated the results of the Nov. 21 presidential runoff, Russia and the United States have traded charges of interference. A new election is scheduled for Dec. 26.
Opposition leaders, international monitors and Bush's election envoy to Ukraine have said major fraud marred the runoff between Yushchenko and current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was declared the winner.
Yushchenko is friendlier toward Europe and the United States than his opponent, who has Putin's support and backing from the current Ukrainian government of President Leonid Kuchma. Putin lauded Yanukovych during state visits to Ukraine within a week of the Oct. 31 election and the Nov. 21 runoff.
Yushchenko's backers say Russian support for Yanukovych goes beyond Putin's praise and includes millions of dollars in campaign funding and other assistance. Putin has said Russia has acted "absolutely correctly" with regard to Ukraine.
Documents and interviews provide a glimpse into how U.S. money was spent inside Ukraine.
"Our money doesn't go to candidates. It goes to the process, the institutions that it takes to run a free and fair election," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The exit poll, funded by the embassies of the United States and seven other nations and four international foundations, said Yushchenko won the Nov. 21 vote by 54 percent to Yanukovych's 43 percent. Yanukovych and his supporters say the exit poll was skewed.
The Ukrainian groups that did the poll of more than 28,000 voters have not said how much the project cost. Neither has the United States.
The four foundations involved included three funded by the U.S. government: The National Endowment for Democracy, which receives its money directly from Congress; the Eurasia Foundation, which receives money from the State Department, and the Renaissance Foundation, part of a network of charities funded by billionaire George Soros that receives money from the State Department. Other countries involved included Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Grants from groups funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development also went to the International Center for Policy Studies, a think tank that includes Yushchenko on its supervisory board. The board, however, also comprises several current or former advisers to Kuchma.
Craner's Republican-backed group used U.S. money to help Yushchenko arrange meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and GOP leaders in Congress in February 2003.
The State Department gave the National Democratic Institute, a group of Democratic foreign policy experts, nearly $48 million for worldwide democracy-building programs last year. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is chairwoman of the institute's board of directors.
The institute says representatives of parties in all the blocs that participated in Ukraine's 2002 parliamentary elections have attended its seminars to learn skills such as writing party platforms, organizing bases of voter support and developing party structures. It also has been a main financial and administrative supporter of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, an election watchdog group that said the presidential vote was not conducted fairly.
The institute also organized a 35-member team of election observers led by former federal appeals court Judge Abner Mikva for the Nov. 21 runoff vote. Craner's group sent its own team of observers.
The U.S. Agency for International Development also funds the Center for Ukrainian Reform Education, which produces radio and TV programs aiming to educate Ukrainian residents about reforming their nation's government and economy. The center also sponsors press clubs and education for journalists.
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50-70 million dollars is pretty cheap way to send elections into turmoil:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1219-23.htm
U.S. Poured Millions into Ukraine, But State Dept. Denies Trying to Influence Vote
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To hear officials in Washington tell it, the Bush administration was merely trying to support the burgeoning civil society in Ukraine when it funneled $57.8 million to the former Soviet republic over the last two years.
But the governments in Kiev and Moscow, using classic Cold War terms, have lambasted the United States for spending millions of dollars to influence Ukraine's presidential elections.
The complicated truth, analysts say, is that in Ukraine, where civil society has eroded over the last decade under the quasi-authoritarian, corrupt government of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, the fine line between promoting democracy and meddling in the country's internal affairs often becomes blurred.
A number of U.S. government-sponsored and private organizations -- among them, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and U.S. Agency for International Development -- spent millions of American taxpayers' dollars to aid Ukrainian groups that eventually helped bring about the Orange Revolution. Thousands of protesters poured into the streets, leading to overturning suspect results favoring Ukraine's pro-Kremlin government candidate Viktor Yanukovych over Viktor Yushchenko, who was backed by the pro- Western opposition.
"Our candidate is the Ukrainian people, and we're supporting their right to a free and fair vote," said one State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The State Department spends about $1 billion a year to support pro-democracy activities worldwide.
Anatol Lieven, an expert on the former Soviet Union at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says the donor organizations got caught up in the rift between those in Ukraine who staunchly support the country's increasingly authoritarian government and those who want the nation of 49 million people to become a Western-style democracy -- and are, by default, associated with the opposition.
As a result, supporting "a free and fair vote" inadvertently became tantamount to backing the opposition, Lieven said.
U.S. support of "voter education initiatives, youth activist groups and parallel counts has favored ... Yushchenko," said Pavel Erochkine, an expert on Ukraine at the Centre for Global Studies, a British think tank.
This has enraged Yanukovych, Ukraine's prime minister, who accused Washington of "financing Yushchenko's campaign."
What makes the United States particularly vulnerable to criticism of trying to manipulate Ukraine's elections is its position toward the former Soviet state, analysts say. The Bush administration sees Ukraine as a potential NATO member and a buffer zone between Russia and the West, while Russia seeks to re-establish its traditional hegemony over the Texas-size state.
Officials at American organizations that ran programs in Ukraine say their only political agenda was making the election democratic and fair.
"All the effort that has been made on the part of organizations like ours and on behalf of the U.S. government was to support the process, not an outcome," said Ken Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute, which spent approximately $2 million training Ukrainians on how to organize political parties, how to monitor elections and, in coordination with Freedom House, bringing 1,000 election observers from 16 countries in the region.
Wollack said his institute offered training to individuals and political parties "across the political spectrum."
But groups and individuals who support the Ukrainian government and trust its ability to hold elections usually see no need in parallel counts and independent observers, and rarely apply and participate in such training, said Fiona Hill, an expert on the former Soviet Union at the Brookings Institution and former director for strategic planning at the Eurasia Foundation, a group that promotes democracy in the region.
"People self-select, and this self-selection is portrayed (by the Ukrainian government) as direction, that somebody is sitting in the State Department orchestrating all this," Hill said. "No, they're not. They are playing catch-up."
Election monitors trained by the National Democratic Institute "have been subject of intimidation and harassment over the years," Wollack said. "It's not easy when groups ... stand up and challenge actions by authorities, and expose improper behavior of authorities. They have courageously done that."
John Kubiniec, Freedom House's regional director for Central and Eastern Europe, said Ukrainian authorities have intimidated election observers his group had trained. Kubiniec also said employees of Freedom House's Kiev office are "being observed, our phones are tapped, our electronic communications monitored, and we are being followed."
Here, Ukraine might be following the example of Russia, where President Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB spy who energetically supported Yanukovych, has said that groups promoting democracy that receive funds from overseas are foreign spy cells in disguise.
"Putin and Yanukovych come from a very Soviet political culture; they don't understand the concept of civil society," said Taras Kuzio, an expert on Ukraine at George Washington University who monitored the Nov. 21 election and will be an observer at the Dec. 26 rerun.
That gives all the more reason to the United States to continue funding projects that promote democracy in the region, said Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Carlos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.
"All of this activity is undertaken to help create a more secure and stable world where the will of the people can be expressed through their governments," Lantos said. "This is not merely altruistic, but also in the interest of the United States."
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Its only considered democratic if US, EU and British money and views are considered.
Oh wait ... Iraq ... hmmm
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Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture
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