The fraudelent presidential election in Ukraine was a complete setback for Ukraine to join the world of the western democracy and was a missed opportunity for the European Union to get an ally towards its expansion to the east.
Putin is still in control of 12 of the 15 former soviet republics.
what a disappointment !

1. The future of Ukraine is none of your business. You have no moral right to define it, especially since you so comfortably ignore the votes of a very large part (very likely a majority) of the population, its history, its culture, its mentality.

2. It is sad to see so people in the West so simple-mindedly stick to the stereotype "Russian = undemocratic = militaristic". This is just ridiculous. You should get from somewhere a better idea about what Russians today think about democracy and military might before you bring up these stale and smelly Cold War stereotypes.

3. Before you accuse Russia of imperialism - look at yourself. You interfere with the internal affairs of a country that has nothing to do with you whatsoever. FYI: Russians make up 30% of Ukrainian population, and Ukraine has very long been the same country as Russia.

4. So far, I have not seen even a suggestion as to what exactly was the fault with the elections. Apart from one exit poll saying the other candidate won. Why getting so emotional without even having thought of some good reason to screech?

5. Putin controls 12 former USSR republics? He has many very good reasons to (I can tell you about that if you want). But how about Spain, UK, and a couple of other advanced "free" countries trying to be the first to do Bush another political ******* while he threatens with murder and destruction to some other country on the opposite side of the world?

The stars above after "political" mean "b!l@o#w$j%o%b". This is a rude but very precise description.

And one more thing. Today Putin made a statement which nicely answers all this recent hysteria about Russia wanting to dominate in Ukraine. He said - and I share this view, that Ukrainian elections do not need any recognition from abroad, which is why Russia did not come up with any statements whether it accepts the outcome of elections or not. This is however what the Western countries arrogantly did, which is exactly intereference into the internal affairs of a country they do not have even common borders with.

This election has been a farce and the actions of Mr.Putin have been shameful.GIVE THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE THIER DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS!

What do you mean for "interfering" ?
This is an open and democratic forum and here we are just expressing our points of view.
It is a matter of fact that Ukraine is not a democracy and president Kuchma has been an inept and extremely corrupted president. Just look the ranking of the world 's most corrupted countries and the Ukraine living standards, which have worsening since the independence.
It is nothing anti-Russia, it looks that Viktor is very touchy and obsessed about it, here we can talk about Russia, United States, Palestine, Cameroon or French Polynesia and anything related to the politics and human rights.
As human rights actvist, I am just doing my job and I am gonna follow with it for the rest of my life.
The mistakes of France or United States or United Kingdom are another matter, nobody is denying them, if we want to talk about the errors and horrors of the colonialism , we can open a new topic in this forum here , no problem.
There are no anti-Russia conspirations here, so you should try to be more balanced and relaxed in your sentences. This site is dedicated and intended to promote democracy and free speech, not people "fighting" with words.
So, thanks for expressing your opinions, they are welcomed, just keep it as an open democratic forum, not a personal matter.
Thanks and keep visiting and posting.
The Editor

I don't think I am turning it into a personal matter. I never mentioned you, myself or any other people here in my postings. I am perfectly fine with this being a democratic forum, amd I don't see how I can be wanting to change that.

There is a strong anti-Russian sentiment in the Western politics. I hope I made this clear in the posts, but you are just ignoring that.

The decision of a rerun of the presidential runoff election would be the best decision.
Anyway, I hope Wkraine will manage to solve this big trouble without fighting and accept the result of a fair round of election.

You said that Putin still controls 12 ex-Soviet countries. You mean that just the Baltic states are not in his control? I think that Georgia after the rose revolution is proamerican and is no more in the russian sphere of influence.

Yes, but only partially.
Abkhazia and Northern Ossetia are out of the control of the Georgian government.
Russia supports their independent movements because it wants to control those territories.
Thousands of Abkhazians were granted Russian citizenship and Russia has direct links, both commercial and phisical (railroads and highways) to the capitals of these territories.
It is not an easy task for the flamant georgian government.

It's not an easy task for Georgian government, indeed. But should it be *its* task, after all? Maybe you should consider the will of Abkhazians and Ossetians themselves? I am not aware of any referendum held on that there, but many people in those areas are in favor of being a part of Russia rather than Georgia. I also know there are old ethnical tensions between those peoples and Georgians, so as a human rights activists you should consider that in the first place.

We all deserve the same rights, so Abkhazians and Southern Ossetians have also the right to have a referendum about their status (1-Georgia 2-Russia 3-independent country).
Sure they have that right, which have been denied so far, not only because Georgia but because their authoritarian presidents also.
If they choose to be part of Russia, welcome!
I would be happy to see their going out from the deadlock and have a stable status, whatever they choose.
The same for Crimea and other territories, we should just try promote reconciliation and stability whenever we can , because the pandora-box effect could be harmful too.

Great! I am glad we can agree on this.

Yes but because the domino effect or pandora box (or the Matrioska doll as you have in RUssia) we should try to preserve national unity as we can.
Where it is not possible, a peaceful separation is the best option.
If that is your idea it is fine but it must be valid anywhere. Would you support the same idea for Dagestan, North Ossetia, Tatarstan, Ingushetia and Kabardino Balkaria ?
THeir population are still mostlypro-russian, but in the case they weren t be that way, would you support a referendum on their status overthere too ?
A good principle is a good principle everywhere.

In an ideal world, I'd have nothing against the decision of the majority of a certain region, wherever it is. Surely, the same principle should be applicable to different nationalities and different regions. One has to guarantee however that separation is carried out in a civilized way and as few people suffer as possible.

Having said that, there is such a notion as "areas of interest" of a country. It's no surprise that any defenseless country is in the "area of interest" of some "superpower", which gets some profit from it. This is a purely barbaric notion and as long as superpowers adhere to it, the ideal situation as described above will not occur: as soon as a region gets out of an area of interest of one superpower, it immediately becomes an area of interest of another. So that superpowers aim to have control over as many regions as possible. And doing that is a matter of diplomacy, propaganda, investitions, etc, etc. That's the raw truth of it.

Now, as to Russian regions, because of a whole range of factors, they all strongly associate themselves with Russia, and not with USA, EU, or the Islamic world. Even many people in FSU do so as well (look at the strong support - ~50% - the Pro-Russian candidate got in Ukraine). They do so not because they are brainwashed by Russian propaganda or some other trick. The West instead tries to acquire them into its areas of interest, where they just do not belong, and does through various tricks, like proclaiming that "pro-Russian" necessarily means "undemocratic" and "Western" necessarily means "freedom-loving" .

Just a note, Russia dosen't really seem to be burning with desire to control or incorporate any of these de facto states. If it did, the referendums you speak of would have been officially held long ago, and the results enforced. However, as is the case with the Russia-Belarus union, the Russian government is quite hesitant to action/acceptance due to the negative effects of having to deal with a fairly economically backwards teritory.