Yanukovitch's concession speech.
Posted on 11/23/2004 4:38:52 PM PST by ModelBreaker
From: Bob Schaffer
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 12:10 PM
Friends: some of you know I am in Ukraine as an election monitor. The presidential election was Sunday. There was rampant cheating and falsification reported throughout the country. I can't go into all details of election. I'm using a blackberry to communicate with lots of USA people, news agencies and Ukrainians. Please check news sources on the Ukrainian election background if you're not familiar. Also, I'll be regularly updating the Denver Post. They're setting their web site to post my updates.
Here's the latest:
Russian special forces dressed in Ukrainian Special forces uniforms are in Kyiv. Ukrainian militia have been instructed by the mayor to protect the people from the Russian troops. Ukrainian militia have established a hotline for Ukrainians to report any incidents with the Russians and pledged to protect Ukrainians. These Russians flew into Ukraine this morning. They're now surrounding the administration buildings they say "to protect Kuchma (the outgoing president and his PM Yanukovich). Following is a chain of email messages I've been sending by blackberry. Please pass along to others. Bob Schaffer
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PETER: PLEASE SEE UPDATES BELOW. GETTING QUITE SERIOUS NOW. OUR EMBASSY'S PHONES ARE DOWN AND WE'RE NOT SURE THEY'RE AWARE OF THE NEWS OF RUSSIANS (SEE BELOW). YES, PLEASE SEND INFO TO ANYONE YOU CAN, ESPECIALLY PRESS. BOB
---------- Dan: is there anything you can do to alert someone in the Denver media to look at news coming out of Ukraine? I know this isn't our normal "beat," but this seems quite serious here. I'll paste below a message I just sent to a ukrainian group. I've been updating several people by blackerrying them events from the street and from the local news. Bob
---------- Yes. I'm safe for now. Demonstrators are reassembling in Kyiv. They're coming back stronger than yesterday coming in from the rest of the country. The authorities are trying to stop them. Cars and busses are being stopped by police at the outskirts of the city. The authorities have scattered road spikes on inbound lanes to stop traffic/protesters. People are walking down the highways to protest. Trains into the city have been stopped.
The parliament is meeting now but without the president's supporters or the Communists. After several speeches, they called Yushchenko to the podium to swear him in as the new president (escorted to the podium with guards). The Rada Speaker Litvin walked out. Then the TV station (only one station covers anything about the election and it only covers 30% of the country) went off then cut to news and footage from earlier in the day. This is similar to the revolution in Georgia.
It seems the opposition has now claimed control of the parliament and most likely named Yushchenko as the president. He walked to the podium with a Bible and a copy of the oath in his hand. 300,000 pro-Yushchenko supporters are in the city square and watched what I described above on a jumbo TV. They're celebrating what they believe is their new president. Provocateurs are infiltrating the crowd. Special forces are said to be moving in to disband the crowd. This is now a clearly declared revolutionary effort. A confrontation seems unavoidable now.
It's very tense here. School has been cancled (again) for tomorrow. I'll report more as I learn it.
Now we hear Yushchenko is headed to the city center to address the masses. His lieutenants will be giving instructions to the people outside the Rada building on "what to do."
Telephones in the outlying towns have been shut off.
Now we hear there are Russians in Ukrainian special forces uniforms.
I'll report more as I learn it. May God bless and protect Ukraine and her people.
A representative of the Greek Catholic Church (a man who appeared to be a priest -- dressed as one) announced at the demonstration that he was speaking on behalf of the Greek Catholic Churchn the Kyiv Patriarchiat and several Protestant denominations (Lutheran was the only specific one I heard but there were several others). He said this coalition of churches recognizes Yushchenko as president.
Yuschenko is now leading 1 million people from the square and surrounding streets to the administration headquarters of the Ukrainian government. He is in front of the column and many fear he is vulnerable to getting shot. They should be at the steps in 15 mins. Keep in mind, this is where the Russian special forces are stationed, dresses in Ukrainian garb.
If violence comes to define this revolution it will likely be within minutes.
The Georgian President (surrounded by Orthodox priests) just appeared on Ukrainian TV congratulating and encouraging the opposition supporters and "President" Victor Yushchenko. He spoke in Ukrainian which is very significant.
The Russian special forces just stopped the crowd approaching the administration headquarters.
Bob
Sent via BlackBerry
Thanks for the ping! Please if you have more let us know, ping list are (IMHO) one of the greatest improvments I seen here over the years.
The right man is in Office again. ;-)
jb6 has posted on several posts here, so i was addressing him, not just his post. sorry for the confusion. i get worked up when some seem to think communism should be back in my homeland. there are a lot of good posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1287133/posts
check posts 52, 57 for some interesting background info.
i get worked up
WHAT! A Freeper getting worked up! And to think I was here to see it. :-)
I take a look in the morning Thanks.
Something does smell here. We might ought to reserve judgement until we get some more hard information.
Especially after hearing that Soros is involved.
George, I TOLD you the parrot was a bad idea!
The election monitor, Bob Shaffer, was my congressman for six years, and served in our state senate before that. We know him well. He is as beloved as Ronald Reagan in our Congressional district, because he is the real deal; we worked so hard for him in the primary against Pete Coors; but Pete had more money and name recognition. Bob is a great friend of Pat Toomey's, who gave Arlen Spector a run for his money in PA this time. They served in Congress together.
If Bob says a thing is so, FReepers can take it to the bank, that is for sure. He is of Ukrainian ancestry, and worked with pro-democracy, pro-western forces in the Ukraine against the communist hard-liners for years while he was in Congress. I have heard many presentations from him about his work there.
We were in the Ukraine after the fall of the Iron curtain. The same communists who controlled Ukraine while the USSR was in power have been in control since; something the Ukrainians despaired about. Reporters who dared to publish articles against the government or exposing corruption or communist ties went missing. This was AFTER the fall of the Iron Curtain. This election is the Ukrainians chance to clean out the commies and corruption and begin again with good people, who are real pro-Western conservatives. Ukraine would be an ally like Poland if they can succeed in changing the government. This is why the people are marching; they know the communist hard-liners are trying to stay in power illegitimately.
When we were in Ukraine, no one spoke Ukrainian in the streets, it had been banned for years. Only Russian. The fact that the Church was speaking in Ukrainian on TV supporting the protesters means something very significant. The Ukrainians, like the Poles, didn't want the USSR ruling them, it was forced on them; they are their own unique people and not just more "Russians," with their own language, music, culture, literature, etc. distinct from Russia's. Ten years ago the Ukrainians were privately dreaming of this day when they would reclaim their country; I sincerely hope that justice prevails here. Please keep the Ukrainians, and Bob too, in your prayers.
We'll probably never know if he really won the election.
But it certainly seems that the other side tried to steal it. In which case, they should be removed from power.
"One Freeper is even basing his support on what some liberal democrat "American" election observer has to say about it."
Bob Schaffer is not a scare quotes "American"; he is third generation American of Ukrainian descent, and a Reagan Republican. Not Liberal, Not Democrat. A Reagan conservative Republican, one of the most conservative members of the House when he served there. He served 8 years in the Colorado state senate, and 6 in Washington DC, representing my district. I know him. He was my congressman. He was an expert in Ukrainian foreign policy matters in the Congress, and has a sterling reputation. He won numerous awards while in Congress for his work continuing the Reagan legacy. I have never known him to tell a lie.
If he could have beaten Pete Coors in the primary for the Senate seat in Colorado, he would have beaten the Democrat, Ken Salazar, and we would have SIX new Republican senators instead of five in the Senate. (Coors never has held public office one day in his life, knows next to nothing about the issues, and ran a Kerry-like campaign, full of stupid blunders, which Salazar capitalized on. None of that would have happened with a Schaffer campaign; Schaffer would have beaten Salazar on the issues in Red State Colorado; Coors thought because he was a millionaire he could buy himself a Senate seat. It just doesn't work that way here.)
In Bob's last contested election he beat the liberal Democrat with over 60% of the vote, and his last election went uncontested by any Democrats, they recognized he was so wildly popular that he was unbeatable. But Pete Coors is a millionaire and Bob is just a regular middle class guy like most of us. He couldn't overcome the Coors multi-million dollar media blitz to win the primary. He is BELOVED as Ronald Reagan in northern Colorado, his home turf.
Please know what you are talking about before speaking ill of a great man.
bump!
Sorry....I misread that part of your earlier post about Bob Schafer. Even so...maybe he should rethink his Ukranian politics if he and George Soros are backing the same man.
Anybody remember, not that long ago, how Kerry was threatening to make a victory speech even if he lost the election, if the count was close enough? What is it about Soros' boys and the "assumption" of victory before the dust has settled? Is he giving them the same playbook?
So, do we have a winner here?
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TTS writes: "While most of the people on the streets are no doubt genuine, both Yanukovych and Yushchenko are completely controlled by Moscow IMO. This is pure theater designed to dupe the West into believing the Ukraine and Moscow are NOT working together as one."
No problem. But what is the proof that George Soros is backing the pro-Western, Ukrainian nationalist candidate? I missed the evidence.
I believe that some folks are so afraid of the Russians that they will follow a jerk GODLESS socialist-liberal like Soros.... A BIG MISTAKE!!
Hmmm, some folks did something like that during WWII as I recall. They suffered for it too.
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