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“You shouldn’t play peacemaker by feeding a crocodile and hope to be the last eaten by it” (Viktor Yushchenko on Russia, Nov. 30, 2018, TRT interview)

Almost ten years before Yanukovych was chased from power, at the end of the Euromaidan protests, the candidate running against him, Yushchenko, was poisoned, apparently by Russia. The Agent Orange-dioxin was of such a pure grade that the source had to be Russia, the UK, or the US, according to experts. Only Russia had a motive. Yushchenko was poisoned in Sept. 2004. Yanukovych fled in Feb. 2014.

Anyone who was alive, and not seeing impaired, has to recall Viktor Yushchenko’s post-poisoning face, even if they didn’t understand the details. Russia’s been running over its neighbors for over 1000 years, killing the people and colonizing.

Those who think that Russia, which has the largest land area in the world, but only the 9th largest population, is somehow endangered by its small neighbors and must gobble them and their natural resources up for self protection need to look at a map and do a bit of research.

Those who are too young, lazy or illiterate, to understand that history didn’t start in 2014, probably shouldn’t be spouting opinion online, or need to apply for payment, or pay increase from Russia-Putin. And, really, considering that Russia has the largest land area, but only the ninth largest population, they should apply for Russian residency-citizenship. There are many good videos online, which can help the functionally illiterate, who only have minimum reading skills, so there is no excuse in remaining ignorant apart from time. And, if someone has time to blog pro-Russia propaganda, they have more time than sense. One even has time to do computer generated drawings alongside Russian propaganda. Wow, and we don’t have time to either eat or put to use our true drawing skills, but Putin’s Barbie doll propagandist has time to play around with fake computer “art”.

One must pity, not only Ukraine, but Russians, as well. Russia’s time is likely up. Putin’s bellicose behavior will probably mean that Russia is run over by China and India more quickly than would have otherwise been expected. China and India have the largest populations and Russia-Putin has the most land. Russia’s next door to China, so they don’t have to move far. Putin’s been in around the same number of years as Saddam Hussein, and Baby Doc Duvalier. Neighbor China is smaller in land area than Russia but has a much, much larger in population.

What Americans weren’t told is that whoever has the most children-largest population wins. We were told to get an education and be responsible. We weren’t told that our jobs would be given away to foreigners, under H1B. As in Russia, government policies are leading to our destruction.

“One on one: Interview with Viktor Yushchenko on the Russia-Ukraine Tension”: TRT World Published on Nov 30, 2018 Russia has seized three Ukrainian naval vessels in the Kerch Strait off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea after opening fire on them. We made an interview with Viktor Yuschenko on the latest developments“ https://youtu.be/-0NWEwl-gFs

“Viktor Yushchenko: Ukraine’s ex-president on being poisoned – BBC News, Published on Apr 2, 2018, Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yushchenko says he hopes Europe will wake up to the threat posed by Russia in the wake of the poisonings in Salisbury. Fourteen years ago Mr Yushchenko was taking on a presidential candidate favoured by Russia when he was poisoned with a dioxin, a toxic chemical.” https://youtu.be/o1Gt4V3ojj4

“This is what Russia poisoning did to me: Former Ukrainian president describes horrifying attack that left him disfigured: Viktor Yushchenko’s face was severely disfigured after he was poisoned when running against a Russian candidate during the presidential election” By Abigail O’Leary, News Reporter, The Mirror, UK
13:31, 2 Apr 2018, UPDATED, 14:40, 2 Apr 2018

“Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko has slammed Russia’s ‘medieval policies’ while describing the horrifying effects of his 2004 poisoning.

Yushchenko was poisoned when running against Russia-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych in a 2004 election.

His opponent went on to win the election after Yushchenko fell mysteriously ill….

“According to the investigation, the poison was added to the rice which was served at the table.”…

“I would like what we call “United Europe” to finally realise that the biggest challenge for its citizens is the medieval policy that Russia pursues in the 21st century…” Read the article here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/former-ukrainian-president-viktor-yushchenko-12291277 A similar article is here: https://web.archive.org/web/20220222222953/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5569247/Ukraines-ex-president-recalls-poisoning-14-years-ago.html

“The Revolution of Dignity (Ukrainian: Революція гідності, romanized: Revoliutsiia hidnosti), also known as the Maidan Revolution,[2] took place in Ukraine in February 2014[2][1] at the end of the Euromaidan protests,[1]… In November 2013, a wave of large-scale protests (known as Euromaidan) erupted in response to President Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) at a meeting of the Eastern Partnership in Vilnius in Lithuania. These protests continued for months. In February 2014, clashes between the protestors and the Berkut (special riot police) became violent, and resulted in the deaths of nearly 130 people, including 18 police officers.[28] On February 21, an agreement between President Yanukovych and the leaders of the parliamentary opposition was signed that called for early elections and the formation of an interim unity government. The following day, Yanukovych fled from the capital ahead of an impeachment vote.[29] The protesters proceeded to take control of the capital buildings. On the same day, the parliament declared that Yanukovych was relieved of duty in a 328-to-0 vote (out of the Rada’s 450 members).[30][31][32] Yanukovych said that this vote was illegal and possibly coerced, and asked the Russian Federation for assistance.[33]… The interim government, led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, proceeded to sign the EU association agreement. Petro Poroshenko became the president of Ukraine after a landslide victory in the 2014 presidential elections. The new government restored the 2004 amendments to the Ukrainian constitution that were controversially repealed as unconstitutional in 2010[36] and initiated a large-scale purge of civil servants who were associated with the overthrown regime.[37][38][39]…” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_Dignity

NINE YEARS EARLIER:
“Ukraine: ‘Orange’ Revolution Leader Yushchenko Does Not Fit Typical Models”
December 03, 2004 16:03 GMT By Jeremy Bransten

Excerpt:
“So, what is the secret to Yushchenko’s appeal?

First, a quick biographical sketch. Yushchenko was born in a village in northern Ukraine, on 23 February 1954. Both his parents were teachers. After graduating from the Ternopil Financial Economic Institute in 1975, Yushchenko started his career as an accountant at a collective farm. A year later, he went to work for a regional branch of the USSR State Bank, in his home region. He was later promoted to the bank’s Kyiv branch, and over the next decade and a half held several senior banking posts.

In 1993, after Ukrainian independence, he became head of the newly formed National Bank of Ukraine. Yushchenko steered the introduction of the national currency, the hryvna, in 1997 — widely seen as an economic success. In December 1999, Yushchenko was appointed prime minister by President Leonid Kuchma, with strong backing from the International Monetary Fund and other Western institutions.

Yushchenko’s government was toppled by a no-confidence motion in April 2001, after which he founded the Our Ukraine coalition, becoming the leader of the opposition.

Wolczuk credits Yushchenko’s brief tenure in government for his broad popular support. In a little more than a year, he performed a minor miracle, reversing the country’s decade-long economic slide, while beginning a campaign to clean up entrenched corruption.

“Perhaps the most important achievement of Yushchenko’s government was the fact that he cleared a backlog of wages. So, people for the first time in several years were paid on time, and they really associate Yushchenko with the turnaround of the Ukrainian economy and positive changes which affected them personally,” Wolczuk said.

Yushchenko’s sudden illness during the campaign in September, which he said was caused by a government attempt to poison him, was a watershed moment.

RFE/RL’s Ukraine and Belarus analyst, Jan Maksymiuk, agrees. He said that Yushchenko — both during his time at the head of the National Bank and as prime minister — showed Ukrainians that Western models of government can work in the country. Yushchenko became the leader of the opposition because people believed his rhetoric. He is seen as a man who has proven his competence, not just an ability to shout out slogans.

“Yushchenko was the first prime minister who proved that a market economy and a democratic government can work in Ukraine,” Maksymiuk said. “That they can work politically, and they can work economically — meaning a market economy and a democratic government can improve the livelihood of ordinary Ukrainians.”

The widely held perception that Yushchenko’s government fell because it threatened the vested interests of Ukraine’s newly rich oligarchs and regional clans solidified his reputation as one of the country’s few clean politicians.

Still, until this year’s electoral campaign, Yushchenko was seen as much more of a moderate than many of his associates, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. Yushchenko’s strength is economics, not nationalism, and that is what most people seem to care about in today’s Ukraine.

Paradoxically, the government’s perceived efforts to divide the electorate on nationalist grounds and smear Yushchenko as a Western — even CIA — stooge radicalized Yushchenko, building the momentum for the popular uprising that has gripped the country.

Yushchenko’s sudden illness during the campaign in September, which he said was caused by a government attempt to poison him, was a watershed moment, according to Wolczuk.

“Until early this year, he was really a moderate,” Wolczuk said. “He’s a moderate. He’s not a radical. He’s really been pushed perhaps towards a more radical position and especially the key event which seemed to be tipping point was his illness in September. That really seemed to galvanize and radicalize his agenda, and he started to use much stronger anti-regime language, branding the ruling elites as ‘bandits,’ for example.”

Yushchenko’s symptoms have baffled doctors — his face is now disfigured by lumps and lesions — with several Western specialists now theorizing that he could be suffering from exposure to a chlorine-related toxin, such as dioxin. In the popular psyche, Yushchenko’s physical transformation over the past two months has only confirmed his supporters’ contempt for the government and elevated their leader to near martyrdom.

“He certainly evokes sympathy. And in almost a physical sense, he manifests what is wrong with Ukraine,” Wolczuk said. “If the current elites could resort to poisoning, as Yushchenko has claimed, this really shows their moral degradation, their moral corruption. And from that point of view, turning Yushchenko from quite a handsome man into someone who looks 20 years older, with distorted facial features, almost visually represents what’s wrong with Ukraine.”

Despite the oft-repeated statement that Ukraine is a country geographically divided in two, election results from central and northeastern region show Yushchenko’s appeal was national, not just regional, according to Maksymiuk.

“This presidential election shows that he was the first pro-Western politician who crossed the Dniepr River, and regions not only on the right bank [to the West] supported him, but also on the left bank [to the East],” Maksymiuk said.

It remains unclear how the political standoff will play itself out in Ukraine. If Yushchenko fails in his bid for the presidency, he can always return to making honey. According to his personal Internet page, the man who would be Ukraine’s new president is an avid beekeeper.”

Copyright 2022-2009 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036”https://www.rferl.org/a/1056202.html