Here is a background of the two candidates....
Viktor Yanukovych: Aged 54 Imprisoned twice in his youth Former governor of industrial Donetsk region Raised pensions and public sector pay before election Would make Russian second official language and allow dual citizenship
Viktor Yushchenko: Aged 50 An economist and former central banker Has an American wife Promises to fight corruption, create five million jobs and pursue free market reforms Would seek deeper relations with Europe and the West
Yanukovych: Another former Communist party member who wins a landslide victory. Read the following and then take a look at the original post above...guess which country was the first to recognize Yanukovychs victory?
Excerpts from the Jamestown Foundations expose on Yanukovych entitled YANUKOVYCH TRIES TO CLEAN UP HIS IMAGE:
...Yanukovych was sentenced to three years imprisonment, from 1967 to1970, for theft. But he was released early. He was again imprisoned from 1970 to 1972 for violence. In 1978, the Donetsk oblast court annulled both convictions. Hanna Herman, Yanukovych's new press spokeswoman, complained that, "Someone is very eager to discredit the leading aspirant to the top post in our state" (Ukrayinska Pravda, May 13). President Kuchma added that it is, "a bit laughable when this factor is used" (Ukrayinska Pravda, April 28). A Cabinet of Ministers press release, dated May 13, also linked the public airing of Yanukovych's prison terms to the election campaign...
...Not surprisingly, the opposition has raised the issue. Our Ukraine Deputy Mykola Tomenko posed a question in Parliament to Interior Minister Mykola Bilokin, in which he asked for details relating to both convictions. Answering the question has proven difficult for Bilokin, as the original documents in Donetsk oblast courts pertaining to Yanukovych between 1960 and 1970 have disappeared. A similar cleansing of official documents pertaining to the past of Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the presidential administration, took place after the publication in 2001 of an unflattering biography entitled Narcissist by Our Ukraine Deputy Dmytro Chobit...
...Oleksandr Kondratyev, chairman of the Donetsk appeals court, attempted to clear up Yanukovych's criminal background at a news conference during which he outlined the convictions. Kondrateyev explained how former cosmonaut and USSR Supreme Soviet Deputy Georgiy Beregoviy interceded on Yanukovych's behalf to help overturn both convictions (Interfax-Ukraine, May 26). After the press conference, Donetsk media publicised a claim that the 1978 overturning of the two convictions was legitimate as Yanukovych had been charged on "false testimony" (Ukrayina TV, May 26). It was offered as further proof of his innocence that Yanukovych was permitted to join the Communist Party in 1970...
...In 1973, Medvedchuk was also sentenced to two years imprisonment for violence. But he, like Yanukovych, did not serve his full sentence. Quashing of Medvedchuk's conviction may have been based on an illicitly taped conversion by presidential guard Mykola Melnychenko. On the recording, Kuchma is told by then-Chairman of the Security Service Leonid Derkach that Medvedchuk and his long-time oligarch ally, Grygoriy Surkis, had been KGB agents (New York Times, December 19, 2003)....
Link:
http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=2970&article_id=236789
Yushchenko appears to be a pretty good guy. He was also a very young and good looking 50 year old. Supposedly, the KGB kidnapped him and injected something in him.
Whatever it was it wrecked his face. He look liked a good looking boyish 40's, can do guy and after he looked like a ruddy faced drunk in his late 50s. Really bizarre. Sort of like a reverse botox that Kerry got.
A real shame. The Ukrainians deserve a break. The 54 year old criminal Viktor is supposedly a KGB/Kremlim puppet.