UKRAINE UPDATE: Newsweek is calling it Putin’s Pratfall:
Dec. 13 issue – To Vladimir Putin, the cheers ringing through Kiev’s aptly named Independence Square must have sounded like catcalls from hell. Only three weeks before, in a ham-handed display of Kremlin bullying, Putin had championed his own dubious candidate for Ukraine’s presidency, ex-convict Viktor Yanukovych. A fraud-tainted election followed, and the Russian leader haughtily dismissed calls for a recount, warning against Western “interference.” But after a long, tense standoff in which tens of thousands of Ukrainians thronged the streets in protest—and only a day after Putin again rejected the idea of a runoff—Ukraine’s Supreme Court last Friday ordered a new election for Dec. 26. When the news was broadcast live on the giant television screens in central Kiev, more than 30,000 supporters of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko went wild, kissing, hugging and blowing noisemakers. Then the pro-Western Yushchenko appeared, declaring: “Today Ukraine is a democratic country.”
Why is that bad for Vladimir Putin? Because he’s got grand plans that don’t necessarily square with a free-thinking demo-cracy next door. The last thing Putin wants to see is another chunk of the old U.S.S.R. disappear down the maw of the ever encroaching West.
Meanwhile, there are supporting pro-democracy protests in Chicago:
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Chicago Saturday to rally for the Ukraine. They’re supporting a decision to go ahead with a new vote for president.
Saturday in Chicago a much smaller but strikingly similar demonstration by those with ties to the Ukraine.
“All Ukranians around the world ar eunited to build a free society for the Ukraine,” said Dr. Yuri Melnik.
“What we would like is for the eyes of the world to be on Ukraine right now. This is a burning beacon of the world. We want it to burn even brighter,” said another demonstrator.
Some here carry signs that demand Russian President Vladimir Putin “not” meddle in the affairs of the former Soviet Republic.
I actually feel somewhat sorry for Putin. He’s tried to consolidate his power in Russia in ways that are sometimes plausible — in many ways, his writ doesn’t run far from Moscow, even now — but he’s overreached. The question is whether he’ll be smart enough to climb down gracefully, rather than doing things that make matters worse.