Interesting blogging on Ukraine-related issues is being done here (via Drezner) as well as at Fistufull of Euros and on Susan's blog http://sueandnotu.blogspot.com/ . Other reader suggestions would be appreciated in comments.
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points to Ukrainian blog, http://www.postmodernclog.com/ How and Why the Election was Stolen, Part II
I've explained a bit about the socio-political composition of Ukraine. We'll go to the next level now and talk a bit about how that interacts with politics and elections. But keep in mind that this is only a really broad overview.
Start by understanding that Ukraine has a LOT of political parties, which in turn unite into a few major blocs in the parliament (the Rada.)
Now remember we talked about the massively powerful oligarch groups? Parties are how they translate their economic power into political control. On the simplest level, each clan forms its own party. Kiev clan has the Social-Democratic Party. Donetsk clan owns the powerful Party of the Regions. And so on.
If only it stopped there. With their money, they buy out smaller parties and use the remaining shell to attract votes. The Green Party suffered this fate, with the actual environmentalists moving on to two small rump parties (thankfully the Greens are back on the Reform side now.)
Even creepier, the oligarchs finance gen-tailored spoiler parties. For example, when facing a parliamentary election against Yulia Tymoschenko, they simply financed an on-paper women's party to siphon support from her.
So through these parties they take power. The Ukrainian clan system is basically a form of economic tribalism whereby the members bring home spoils for the tribe. So, for example, the Kuchma presidency has been very good for the 200-odd members of his clan. With Yanukovych rising in power, the spoils tilt increasingly his direction.
Since Ukraine has only partially de-Sovietized, the group in power has no shortage of levers for socio-political control. The oligarchs have been industrious since taking power, busily suppressing opposition businesses, media and parties. The resiliency of the Opposition in the face of this pressure is admirable.
In Part III we'll talk about the two primary motives behind the stolen election, and in Part IV we'll look at the actual means by which it was stolen -- both during the campaign, and on election day itself.
http://www.postmodernclog.com/archives/cat_ukraine.html#000735 Behind the Scenes -- How and Why the Ukrainian Election was Stolen, Part I
Reading through my comments, I'm seeing that the situation really isn't clear to some in the West. Discounting the reflexively silly Bush-haters, there are some normal people who are viewing this simply through the lens of election corruption. That's only the surface.
You have to understand the situation in Ukraine. The country is run by a series of oligarchic clans that actually found their beginnings in the Soviet Union, and then grew fabulously rich during the early days of "privatization".
Compare the situation to Russia, where an authoritarian Putin faced off against corrupt oligarchs. In Ukraine, authoritarianism and oligarchy are fused. Yanukovych isn't just another unscrupulous candidate, he's the main man of Akhmetov -- the duke of Donetsk and the richest man in Ukraine. The current president, Kuchma, is the head of a different clan, Dnepropetrovsk. The presidential administrator is Medvedchuk, who happens to run the Kiev-based Medvedchuk-Surkis clan. He also owns the two biggest Ukrainian TV stations, which is awfully convenient.
While there is jockeying for control among these clans, the overall effect is for them to sustain one another in power. They all depend on the same system for survival, and actively collaborate to keep it in place.
A good example of the clan system in action was the recent privatization of the Kryvorizhstal factory. Western firms offered 2.1 billion dollars. It was sold to the presidents son-in-law for 800 million. His son-in-law is Pinchuk, the head of the Pinchuk-Derkach clan.
Do you start to see how life works here? This isn't about a few stolen votes. It's about an entire system of fine control over the political, social and economic life of the people. Economics and politics are incestuously fused here in a way that is difficult to imagine for those in the West.
Next I'll go into the ways in which the clans control the political parties here, and specific motives for stealing the election.
-- Michael Pugliese