Ukrainian elections turn into farce

0 According to one of the rumors, Russian special service units have been deployed to Kiev. Yulia Timoshenko made a statement the other day informing the public of the presence of Russian special service units armed with machine guns inside the administrative building of the Ukrainian president. Prior to this, there were reports of Russian soldiers from special defense unit "Vityaz" at the residential site Irpen located in close proximity to Kiev. One of the Ukrainian editions reported with a reference to a source in "Moscow's special service unit", that military men of that very special service unit have already packed up their stuff and have been awaiting orders to be transferred to Ukraine. This isn"t all however. The following claim made on one of the internet forums can serve as a real apotheosis of this whole story. The statement reads that Russian special service units are wandering the streets of Kiev begging local residents for warm clothes! This is just one of the absurdities that one may read or hear during these tough for Ukrainian democracy days.

Western media in turn is also doing its best to present Russia at its worst. American magazine Nature, which isn"t politically oriented at all, or so it may seem, has nonetheless addressed the issue of Victor Yushchenko. While referring to British toxicologist John Henry from St. Mary"s hospital in London, the magazine claims that Yushchenko"s acne is indicative of dioxine poisoning. Mr. Henry was able to arrive at such conclusion after examining few photographs of the opposition leader.

The aforementioned examples represent the most miniscule part of all the rumors. We are not even discussing the ones that are being spread on the streets. What rumors do people believe in? Obviously, there is no such thing as "Moscow's special service units." It is virtually impossible to diagnose someone with an illness having a mere photo at hand...

All jokes aside, no matter how much criticism current Ukrainian authorities get, opposition's actions are no better, perhaps, even worse. At least, these days there seems to be more disinformation coming from the opposition.

Vasily Bubnov

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