Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovich, resigns

[cal04]

Prime Minister of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich, has stepped down, it has been reported. But he has refused to concede defeat after a re-run of elections in the country.

"I have made a decision and am formally submitting my resignation," he said in a televised address. However, the man declared to have lost the country's re-run presidential election to Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko has refused to admit defeat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4138581.stm

Yanukovych has said that he will appeal the results and his campaign has said it is preparing an appeal to Ukraine's Supreme Court. "I believe it is impossible to have any position in a state that is ruled by such officials," Yanukovych said. "This is my personal position."
He vowed to remain in politics. "We are still fighting, but I don't have much hope," Yanukovych said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/20041231/ap_on_re_eu/ukraine_election

[JohnLocke]

1. We won't miss you (nt)

[pinerow]

2. As I've said before...the lesser of two evils is still evil..

nt

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mattclearing]

7. You are mistaken. In the Ukraine, PM and President are different positions

eom

[pinerow]

8. I stand corrected...however the general point still stands.

nt

[mattclearing]

9. I was not correcting you, but Tank.

TankLV was the one who asserted that Yanukovich was resigning from a position he never held. That is false. He was Prime Minister, but was never elected President.

[pinerow]

11. Now I stand corrected...

:toast:...Happy New Year

[TankLV]

13. Nice of you to post crude comments to me in my inbox but not let me

respond to you.

Nice coward you are.

Don't like what I have to say, then take a hike honey.

I have better things to do than waste time with idiots like you.

[TankLV]

14. I stand corrected.

Thank you for the information.

[Stew225]

4. He can go back to making some great

polka music, though.

[Kolesar]

10. That's Frankie Yankovich

Not Victor. And Frankie's dead, btw.

[Massacure]

6. Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

[diddlysquat]

12. Kind of Like Dino Rossi in WA State...refusing to concede

[imagine1989]

15. Good Day for Ukraine

This is a wonderful day for Ukraine.

[Deja Q]

17. Why? Do you live there and know firsthand?

:shrug:

And why was the US prattling in on the affairs of foreign elections, when it can't even hold its own to a fair (or even documented) standard?

[IndianaGreen]

16. Boy, have we been sold snake oil again!

Once again the capitalist press succeeds in selling us snake oil. Read it and weep, and then do your research into Viktor Yuschenko and his neocon American wife.

US client Yushchenko to assume Ukraine presidency

By Justus Leicht
6 January 2005

The whole economy, as well as the parliament and Yushchenko’s own movement, are dominated by oligarchic interests. Yushchenko’s main source of finance is controversial big businessman Petro Poroshenko, who owns numerous companies and a television station, and is regarded as a potential candidate for the post of prime minister. Most of the oligarchs who supported the defeated candidate Yanukovich during the campaign are also making plans to fall in line with the new president.

Yushchenko has advocated that in the future the oligarchs should also be forced to pay taxes. His opposition movement has estimated that half of the Ukrainian economy belongs to the so-called “shadow economy.” In light of the extremely low tax rates and the huge fortunes made by the oligarchs, it should be possible for them to pay such taxes.

However, this point of his programme should not be taken too literally. Yushchenko has also announced plans to abolish the enforcement staff of the revenue office and will reduce tax examinations for enterprises. Under Kuchma such examinations by tax officials were often a means of regulating competition between different cliques of oligarchs or simply as a means of extortion. Yushchenko’s election programme puts the matter rather ingenuously and declares: “If taxes are fair, then all citizens will pay them.”

In return, Yushchenko guarantees that the oligarchs can retain their property. Although it is well known that the privatisation of large state enterprises in the 1990s usually took place through criminal means, Yushchenko expressly excludes any “redistribution of property.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/ukra-j06.shtml