Ukraine: Swine Flu (and Some Election Politics)

Global Voices Online
Saturday, October 31, 2009

The past three weeks in Ukraine have been very intense.

First, a child sex abuse scandal broke out on Oct. 13, involving, among others, three members of PM Yulia Tymoshenko's parliament faction (to learn more, read this article at Abdymok and this Kyiv Post editorial).

A week later, on Oct. 19, the presidential campaign officially kicked off, with the election scheduled to take place on Jan. 17, 2010. On Oct. 24, thousands of people from all over Ukraine were brought to Kyiv's Independence Square to cheer for PM Tymoshenko at a huge rally celebrating the official launch of her campaign (for photos, video and thoughts on the event, see this post at Ukrainiana).

On Oct. 26, Ukraine's interior minister Yuri Lutsenko announced that "a network of the extreme Islamic movement al-Takfir wal-Hijra, which is banned by many countries in the world, is spreading in the Crimean territory of Ukraine," and its members were planning to kill Mustafa Jemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatars.

Finally, on Oct. 30, after a few days of alarming reports on an outbreak of respiratory illness in western Ukraine, the first swine flu-related death was confirmed, and PM Tymoshenko ordered Ukraine's schools closed and public gatherings - including election campaign rallies - banned for at least three weeks; restrictions on non-urgent travel inside Ukraine may also be imposed. According to WSJ.com, Ukraine's president Victor Yushchenko canceled his upcoming campaign rally "where he had been due to announce his election agenda, telling journalists that 11 people had died of H1N1, contradicting a Health Ministry report of only one fatality. An aide and a ministry official said Mr. Yushchenko may have made a mistake."

Below is what Anglophone bloggers are writing about this latest development - the flu outbreak.

Ukrainiana:

At least 61 people are in critical condition. H1N1 has been officially confirmed in seven cases. Schools and kindergartens in nine oblasts have been closed: Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Zakarpattya, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, Khmelnytsk and Vinnytsya.

“Ukraine has entered a flu epidemic, of the so-called California (swine) type. As of October 29, we have 951 people hospitalized. Unfortunately, we have to note 30 fatalities,” Minister of Healthсare Vasyl Knyazevych said at a briefing Friday.

More recent reports bring the death toll to 37. [...]

MoldovAnn:

The H1N1 virus has finally arrived in Ukraine, and along with it a big ole dose of overreaction and panic. Reports vary on the number of infected and number of deaths attributable to swine flu, but there seems to be clear consensus that those who have died waited too long to seek medical attention. Then again, knowing the medical care available in regional towns and villages, it’s hard to imagine how going to the clinic or hospital would have really helped many of them - sad to say.

Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, in an attempt to scare the living bejeezes out of people, oops, I mean protect the population, has extended the autumn school break for another 3 weeks and advised people to avoid public gatherings. Once the announcement hit the wires this afternoon, parents started panicking - the flu immediately forgotten as they tried to figure out what the hell to do about childcare for another 3 weeks. Ex-pats were openly hoping the “quarantine” wouldn’t affect the international schools.

I saw three people wearing masks today, and another half-dozen covering their noses and mouths with scarves. Igor went to several pharmacies to buy echinacea and flu medicine, but no luck. Every place around us was sold out of both. So he bought a dozen lemons and insisted I drink the “family recipe” for good health - a potent concoction of vodka, lemon juice and honey. [...]

Foreign Notes:

LEvko is astonished at the panic in Ukraine and the way over-the-top reaction from the government and politicians over the swine flu epidemic which has hit the country. There is even talk of the president establishing a state of emergency and possibly postponing the presidential elections.

[...]

Ukrainian politicians would do better to take a good look at Ukraine's appalling life expectancy figures. Major causes of premature deaths in the country are the smoking of cigarettes and excessive alcohol consumption. A ban on advertising these products and restricting their availability would help save countless lives, but it won't happen because there's too much money being to made from their sale. Much easier to show "decisive leadership" and determined action over the flu epidemic, and scare the the population out of its wits - no doubt increasing the sales of cure-all vodka even more...

p.s. I 'phoned the official goverment swine flu information hot-line today...all I heard was crackling..

Windows to Russia!:

[...] Think maybe this has to do more with control of people at election time than the flu? [...]

Twitter user Victor Kotusenko/roxolanus:

ok, now we are getting this h1n1, it's coming. oxoline ointment in my nose every day, washing my hands often, what else? I guess sleep more)

***

mild panic in Kyiv today as h1n1 cases officially confirmed

***

I would call it concern rather than panic in Ukraine, although people are scared by media. but medical services seem to react. we'll c [...]

Russia: Soviet Legacy and Street Names

Global Voices Online
Friday, October 23, 2009

It is, of course, an exaggeration, but back in September and early October, it seemed as if every single Russian blogger took the time to write something about the re-naming of Anti-Soviet Shish Kebab Restaurant in Moscow, dissident journalist Aleksandr Podrabinek's protest article (RUS, Kerkko Paananen's English translation is posted at A Step At A Time) and Nashi youth movement's counter-protest activities.

In the English-language blogosphere, Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog took the time to summarize the ordeal:

[...] Long story short: After a summer of renovations, the owner of kebab restaurant on Leningradskii prospekt decided to call his place “Anti-Soviet” to poke fun at the Soviet Hotel across the street. The name went well the the restaurant’s dissident theme of photos of “anti-Soviet” figures of the past. [...] Vets, however, didn’t see the humor and complained to the local district administration, demanding the restaurant be renamed. The “anti-” in Anti-Soviet Kebab House, they said, hurt their feelings and denigrated their sacrifice in saving Russia from Nazism. Within days, the district’s “crusading environmental inspector,” Oleg Mitvol, paid the Anti-Soviet Kebab House a visit ordering the “anti-” be removed. The owners begrudgingly complied. [...]

[...]

Enter Alexander Podrabinek, the famous Soviet dissident and now Putin foe. Having had enough of the “restoration of the Soviet past,” Podrabinek pounded out a diatribe “Letter to Soviet Veterans,” where he called the name change as “great pity” and lambasted the complaining veterans as “idiotic, base, and stupid.” He then went on to charge the vets as “the ones who served as whipmasters in labour camps and prisons, political commissars of anti-retreat units, and executioners at firing grounds.” According to Podrabinek, he and others who defied the Soviet regime are the country’s real heroes. The letter was published on Podrabinek’s blog and on the website of the liberal rag Ezhednevnyi zhurnal.

[...]

Enter Nashi. Nashi has been aimless since the election of Dmitry Medvedev. With “colored revolution” vanquished, a number of its chapters liquidated, and little need for mass street protests, the kids in Nashi don’t know what to do with themselves. [...]

[...] Soon after Podrabinek’s diatribe hit runet, Nashi began mobilizing its apparatus of outrage. Members began pickets outside of Podrabinek’s apartment, released his phone number and address on the internet, and vowed to run him out of the country. According to Nashi’s GenSek, Nikita Borovikov, all these actions are “of the most democratic in nature.”

Fearing for his life, Podrabinek went into hiding. Not because of Nashi, whose actions he considers a “propaganda stunt” and an “imitation of public outrage” (which it is), but because of “information from reliable sources” that “serious people” want him taken care of. That is “taking care of” in the bullet-in-head sense of the phrase.

More outrage ensued. Ezhednevnyi zhurnal began an online petition in support of Podrabinek, which now sports over 3000 signatures, a virtual who’s who of the Russian liberal intelligentsia. Not to be outdone, Nashi claims to have over 5000 signatures against Podrabinek. [...]

On Oct. 8, LJ user mrfilin wrote a post (RUS) on how the questionable Soviet legacy kept on surviving in street names in his native city of Tula, alluding to the shish kebab restaurant scandal that has caused such an avalanche of online and offline response:

Why isn't there a central street named after Adolf Hitler in Berlin, or a square named after [SS], an avenue named after [Paulus], or, at least, a dead-end street named after [Goebbels]? Perhaps, because it's not appropriate for a bürger to walk down a street named after murderers of the people, ruthless bandits, who only valued power and whose favorite pastime was bloodthirsty fighting for it. An anti-fascist shish kebab restaurant wouldn't be subjected to persecutions by municipal authorities.

In Russia, on the other hand, since ancient times, people have had tender feelings towards tyrants and sadists. An individual sense of identity of a poor wife tortured by her despotic drunkard of a husband has transformed into a mass consciousness: if he beats me, it means he loves me. And when this alcoholic chokes on his own filth and dies, his widow will carefully preserve all kinds of memory of him, posting his photographs all over the apartment. The ones on which he is portrayed wearing his only suit and being his normal self for once.

In the same manner, in every remote place there'll always be a Lenin street, a Red Army avenue or a [Dzerzhinsky] street. And in bigger towns, there'd be a couple of these. But if in Moscow you may get lucky and settle on a street named after a decent person, in the provinces street names carry nothing but the communist heritage. Here, for example, are streets I'm familiar with in Tula:

1. [...] My grandmother lives on a street named after the unknown to me Zhabrov Brothers. I've failed in my attempt to find out who they were, but the street perpendicular to theirs is named after an unprincipled loser-terrorist [Khalturin], who [caused deaths] of 11 heroes of the Russo-Turkish campaign.

2. Grandmother #2, together with grandfather, live on an avenue named after the army that has killed more decent Russian people than any other army in the world, except for the [Nazi German army].

3. Not far from here is a hospital named after informer [Semashko] and General [Frunze], who caused deaths of tens of thousands Red Army soldiers during the fight against the remains of the [White Army]. Frunze used his people as cannon fodder, and was ruthless towards the Whites, too, of course. The general's army liked to rape Russian women, while the general himself preferred to attend theater premieres in Moscow. Only, for some reason, not the pro-Soviet nonsense, but the half-legal [Meyerhold].

4. My parents are somewhat luckier - they live on [Perekop] street - [Crimea]'s edge where the same Frunze and [Denikin] fought one another.

5. Et cetera.

And who is the street you live on named after?

Below are some of the comments to this post:

gogol1:

My street is named after painter [Vasnetsov].

mrfilin:

lucky you

***

tanis_konig:

[Gorky] street probably exists in every city except for the Default City [Moscow]. And the name of our city - '[Kaliningrad]' - is a bit too much [named after Mikhail Kalinin]. Though the German '[Königsberg]' isn't nice, either.

***

cakcon:

Syromolotov street - named after a local Bolshevik :(( [in Yekaterinburg]

***

amidala_rainy:

I've been lucky in this sense - I've nothing against Turgenev, after whom my street is named :)

But there's a neighborhood in our city [Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine] where the following streets cross with one another: Communist, Bolshevik, Proletarian, Lenin, [Sovnarkom] lane, [Rosa Luxemburg], Karl Marx, [Kirov] and [Karl Liebknecht]. All this within one square kilometer (

***

ka_lan:

I've been sort of lucky. In [Krasnoyarsk], it was [Tchaikovsky] street, here [in Moscow] (temporarily) - [Lomonosov] avenue.

Of the relatives who live on streets named after Soviet activists, I only recall grandmother and grandfather - Vodopyanov street in Krasnoyarsk. But I don't think I have anything bad to say about him.

In general, my native city has somehow been lucky with this - the whole sovok is limited to the standard package of "Lenin-Peace-Marx" (three main streets in the center). Bad toponyms don't stick here, and that's it.

***

steelberry:

Coppistrasse. Hans and Hilde Coppi were some fighters against the Nazi anti-Soviet propaganda, who were murdered by the fascists. A friend lives on Karl-Marx-Allee )))

mrfilin:

Berlin?

steelberry:

jawohl!

***

josefreicher:

I live on Lake street, in Ochakov. This used to be the village of Ochakov in Moscow region, with many lakes and swamps, on which they were building houses for those exiled from Moscow after serving sentences for murder and rape. Now this is a residential district of the capital with some really tough - iron - gene pool =)

Russia: Election Fraud and Blogging

Global Voices Online
Monday, October 19, 2009

Reports of vote-rigging in the local elections, which took place in 75 of Russia’s 83 regions on Oct. 11, spurred protests by citizens and politicians in the Russian capital - and quite an outrage among some of the country's bloggers.

In Moscow, the United Russia party, led by PM Vladimir Putin, took 32 of 35 seats in the city legislature; the only other party to make it to the Moscow Duma is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. There are documents and reports that have been circling the Russian blogosphere this past week, however, which suggest that the results of the election could have been different.

One day after the election, LJ user yakovlev_igor - Igor Yakovlev, press secretary of the Yabloko party, which did not pass the 7 percent threshold of votes necessary to win a seat - performed a simple math exercise on his blog, comparing the numbers (RUS) entered on one polling station's vote returns protocol (RUS) and on the summary table (RUS) posted on the Moscow City Election Commission's website later. Here's what he found (translation of the post and of the tables' content - from the English-language section of Yabloko's site):

[...] Electoral district No 1702, Danilovsky district, Moscow.

All who has seen election campaigns of the recent years mark an unbelievable scope of fraud at yesterday’s election (Moscow City Duma election on October 11, 2009).

Here comes only one example of election fraud:

Protocol of the local electoral commission published at the web-site of the Moscow Electoral Commission


[...] 14 3. Moscow regional branch of the UNITED RUSSIA party 742 [...]

Protocol of the local electoral commission given by the commission to YABLOKO’s observer

[...] 14 3. Moscow regional branch of the UNITED RUSSIA party 192 [...]

United Russia simply “got” 550 additional votes from nowhere. 550 is a beautiful figure. [...]

On Oct. 16, things turned even more "beautiful": the protocol and the summary table from another polling station in Moscow showed that Yabloko did not receive a single vote there - even though Yabloko's leader Sergei Mitrokhin and his family cast their votes at that very location, polling station #192. LJ user yakovlev_igor reported on this development (RUS), too, posting both the voting data and photos of Mitrokhin inside and outside the polling station. Two days later, the Moscow City Election Commission ordered an investigation into this episode, and LJ user yakovlev_igor wrote (RUS):

[...] Not all the mass media wrote about it, but on blogs this has been one of the most discussed topics of the past three days.

Long live the bloggers!

LJ user avmalgin wrote (RUS) about the impact of bloggers, too:

In the Soviet times, there used to be the so-called [Samizdat]. Bulletins on human rights violations were being issued - a certain number of copies printed on a typewriter and distributed mainly among foreign correspondents. Of course, the bulletins were quoted on Radio Liberty, which increased the number of consumers of this info to the maximum. But let us not forget that Radio Liberty was being jammed. And the authors of the bulletins were severely persecuted. [Natalya Gorbanevskaya] - [LJ user] ng68, the first editor of the [Chronicle of Current Events] - would be better at telling this story. [Sergei Kovalyov], who had edited exactly seven issues of the bulletin, was imprisoned for exactly seven years - a year for each issue; [Ilya Gabay] was sentenced to three years; [Gabriel Superfin] [was imprisoned] for five years; [Aleksandr Lavut] - for three years. Et cetera. [LJ user] ng68 herself was dragged away from her typewriter, dressed in a straitjacket and taken to a mental asylum, after which [Joan Baez] wrote a song about her, [Natalia].

What was the Chronicle's circulation? Thirty copies. Well, maybe 50.

Right now in the LiveJournal our, so to say, Chronicle of Current Events has a circulation that the [anti-Soviet dissidents] of the 1970s couldn't dream about. I don't know the general statistics, but my posts are sometimes read by 10,000 people a day. The post about cheating in favor of the United Russia has been read by 45,000 people. Not bad. And this is not the only "chronicle" out there - not one, not two, but thousands. Of course, they are dreaming of plugging this fountain. Not my blog, of course, but LJ in general. I'm sure that they are thinking about it.

And here is what the same blogger wrote (RUS) about the results of the election:

[...] But United Russia doesn't want any competition, it is not used to discussions ("Duma isn't a place for discussions"), it does not understand what a multi-party system is about. United Russia wants to be the only party out there, it want to be the new [Communist Party of the Soviet Union]. By now, even a fool understands that the strategic goal of the current regime has been the restoration of the Soviet regime. And so it is nothing but surprising that Russian parliamentary delegations are welcomed abroad, that the impostors are getting invited to international forums, etc. [...]

Russia: Anna Politkovskaya's Memorial Rally Announced

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated on Oct. 7, 2006. This coming Wednesday, a memorial rally is scheduled to take place outside Chistyye Prudy subway station in Moscow.

(Past GV coverage of Anna Politkovskaya's murder: 2006 - here and here; 2007 - here; 2008 - here.)

A note (RUS) announcing the memorial rally was initially posted on the site of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper Anna Politkovskaya wrote for:

It's been three years since the day of Anna Politkovskaya's murder; those who ordered and carried out the killing are still at large.

[...]

These people will take part in the rally:

Aleksey Simonov [president of the Glasnost Defense Foundation], Ilya Politkovsky [Anna Politkovskaya's son], Dmitry Muratov [Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief], [actress Liya Akhedzhakova], Grigory Chkhartishvili [a writer, aka Boris Akunin], [human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva], [politician Grigory Yavlinsky], [politician Boris Nemtsov], [actress Chulpan Khamatova], [politician Mikhail Kasyanov], [satirist Victor Shenderovich], [journalist] Yulia Kalinina, and others.

The rally will begin at 4:03 PM sharp.

The rally has been sanctioned by the Moscow city authorities.

Anna Politkovskaya's photo accompanies the note:


"ANNA - Oct. 7, 2006: The killers are still at large."

And there are also the images of other journalists and activists who "lost their lives while carrying out their professional duty" in Russia, from 2000 to 2009 - Telman Alishaev; Anastasiya Baburova and Stanislav Markelov; Magomed-Zagid Varisov; Igor Domnikov; Magomed Yevloyev; Valery Ivanov and Aleksei Sidorov; Vagif Kochetkov; Pavel Makeev; Maksim Maksimov; Eduard Markevich; Ivan Safronov; Natalya Skryl; Paul Klebnikov; Yuri Shchekochikhin; Natalya Estemirova; Vladimir Yatsina:



This announcement has generated only four comments so far:

konoplyov:

And who is the killer and who ordered it? Maybe he's already dead?

gerantidi:

He's more alive than most living. [Berezovsky is his last name.]

miksread:

I'm horrified to see this unimaginable iconostase. I'm horrified to think of whether the number of the participants of the rally will at least be no less [than the number of the people pictured on the poster]. Have they died in vain? Looks like they have.

igel_68:

[Putin] will have to take responsibility for this one day. On the average, two journalists were being killed each year. Mainly those who spoke about the real state of things in Russia. Those who chose not to glorify the regime. Thus, it is possible to talk of a purposeful elimination. Of a genocide based on profession. [...]

LJ user viking_nord is one of a few dozen bloggers who reposted the announcement (RUS) on his blog. The post's title is "I'll be there." The first comment to it is rather insensitive:

vzzhbzl:

"I'll be there." Is that where Politkovskaya is now? Don't hurry too much, you know. We'll all be there one day.

Here's the rest of the discussion:

viking_nord:

I'm talking about the rally.

vzzhbzl:

Why would you bother? You'll make some noise and disperse - will it change anything?

viking_nord:

But if we don't make any noise, there'll be no changes for sure.

LJ user andrei_naliotov reposted the announcement (RUS) in the ru_politics LJ community (8,722 members). The discussion that's taking place in the comments section right now is rather typical - there's plenty of openly expressed hostility and very little compassion or informativeness:

kidman_moscow:

*yawning*
Don't forget to post a photo report.

***

fetisoff:

Eh, I love taking walks on Chistoprudnyi [Boulevard, the site of the upcoming rally and of a number of other rallies held by the opposition in the past]. But now I have to browse the internet before each walk, to check if some [idiots] are planning to gather there for a rally (though, for some reason, the same ones are protesting there all the time).

***

bobrok_gso:

[Haha], why have you signed up Stasik Markelov as a journalist? Wasn't he a lawyer? Or is [anyone] fit to be an extra?

***

atollos:

All the Mazepas meet the same end. [Refers to the Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa - and to Anna Politkovskaya's maiden name, Anna Mazepa.]

***

knpnk:

Hm... On the poster with journalists there is one vacant spot in the last row... Must be for a reason...

***

vitaly:

Girlfriend of the bearded guys. [Refers to Anna Politkovskaya and the Chechen militants.]

***

salnikov_vova:

Then go catch them [Anna Politkovskaya's killers]! If they are at large, why don't you catch them or pass the information about them to the police!

Ukraine: Broken Promises and the Presidential Election

Global Voices Online
Thursday, October 2, 2009

The presidential election in Ukraine is scheduled for Jan. 17, 2010, and although the official registration of candidates does not begin until Oct. 20, most of the key players have already started their campaigns. In the Ukrainian blogosphere, there is no shortage of posts on pre-election politics, but bloggers who exhibit genuine trust in the nation's politicians are somewhat hard to find. There is plenty of cynicism instead, however.

Some of the early campaigning highlights can be found at Ukrainiana: PM Yulia Tymoshenko's "With Ukraine at Heart" concert; Victor Yanukovych's "I Hear Everyone" ad; and "Ukraine Has To Be Strong" ad by Serhiy Tyhypko, of whom Ukrainiana's Taras writes: "A dead ringer for Kevin Spacey, isn’t he? Only a bit more serious. Or less."

Blogoreader.org.ua, a blog covering the news and views from the Ukrainian blogosphere, wrote (UKR) on Sept. 30 about an interactive political project launched by news portal Korrespondent.net in July - The Measure of Truth (RUS):

[...] The goal of the Measure of Truth project is to determine the level of truth in the statements of Ukrainian politicians. The site's visitors will be assessing the credibility of specific statements, by voting either in favor of or against politicians' quotes. In addition to this, there'll be a short editorial commentary next to each quote. So far, most of these commentaries have been caustic and ironic :)

The "truthometer" will include weekly quote credibility charts. This will make it possible to see the public attitude towards this or that politician - how much the people believe what he or she says.

According to the project's authors, it will continue to exist after the presidential election in Ukraine. [...]

Below are three recent election-related quotes (RUS), by the Ukrainian president and the speaker of the parliament (both of whom are expected to run for president in 2010), as well the breakdown of the audience's pro and contra votes, and the editorial comments:

Sept. 22, 2009
[President Victor Yushchenko]

My plan is to win. < ...> And when we meet with you in six months, I'm sure I'll be the president of Ukraine.


Readers' assessment:
-1323 ( +211 / -1534 )

Editorial comment:

There are two options here. Either Victor Yushchenko is an incredible, amazing optimist. Or he means some other Ukraine. Some fund, perhaps.

***

Sept. 29, 2009
[Parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn]

The main threat to Ukraine's national security are the Ukrainian authorities. I'm talking about them all and am not singling anyone out, because the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and the [Parliament] of Ukraine all represent this threat today.

Readers' assessment:
1247 ( +1430 / -183 )

Editorial comment:

Volodymyr Lytvyn has never demonstrated such a high degree of honesty before.

***

Sept. 30, 2009
Victor Yushchenko

The Yushchenko who is sitting in front of you is the [Yushchenko of 2004]. I haven't deleted a single thesis from my platform.

Readers' assessment:
0 ( +365 / -365 )

Editorial comment:

Victor Andreyevich [Yushchenko] is probably right. And this is the sad part. He hasn't managed to change anything for real in the country - not for the better, at least. All his promises have remained just that, promises, and all his words have remained mere rhetoric, and all his dreams of strong power in a prospering country have remained nothing but dreams. All he's got to do now is return to the opposition. Back to the future, so to say.

LJ user mihailobrodskiy - Ukrainian businessman Mykhaylo Brodsky, no stranger to politics and controversy himself - wrote this (RUS) about pre-election politics and trust:

I've been reading statements like these recently: [Volodymyr Lytvyn] - I'll be #1, [Yulia Tymoshenko] - I'll win, [Victor Yushchenko] - I'll win 100%. As a citizen, I'd like to hear something else. What kind of healthcare system we'll have, for example. Only spoken with responsibility. I don't trust these jerks, though. And I'll just stay silent about [Victor Yanukovych].

Here are some comments to this short post:

mikawai:

Well, Yanukovych is staying silent himself most of the time - what is there to discuss about him :)

ser_dem:

And he's doing the right thing. With his conversational skills, it's better to stay aside quietly, looking clever - who knows, maybe they'll end up electing him. And if he talks, then he'll lose again [as in 2004].

sahaleen:

[Yanukovych] is trying to appear compassionate... How are you doing?.. How is your job?.. It's all [Yulia Tymoshenko's] government's fault. That's the most evil enemy of all, and me, I'm soft and fuzzy... I'll restore order... And how he is going to restore it and, in general, what exactly he is going to do - he's not saying a word about it... Ridiculous... Is it working on anyone!?

ser_dem:

What, is there anyone at all out there who is saying HOW he is going to restore order???

LJ user nefedieff also wrote (UKR, RUS) about Victor Yanukovych's truth-telling:

[...] They say Victor Fedorovych [Yanukovych] spoke in Mykolayiv today. His solemn speech on the occasion of his arrival in the city of ship-builders is hard not to admire.

"I promise to work hard and to always tell you nothing but the truth," emphasized the leader of Party of the Regions during his address.

Mamma mia, I was so moved, I started crying... from laughter. One thing we should now ask him is why not start telling the truth way before the election? [...]

More on Ukrainian politicians' broken promises (UKR) - by LJ user didaio:

The only reason why I'm not going to vote for Yushchenko in the presidential election is his broken promises.

And it looks like Tymoshenko has indeed learned something from him.

"I know that we'll be able to return the money to the people in two years. If I fail to return the money to the people in two years, I - unlike our our male politicians - will resign from my post, because you don't need a post if you can't give what you've promised to the people." (Sept. 28, 2007, Yulia Tymoshenko on Channel 1+1)

Tymoshenko must resign. And it's better for her not to return.

P.S. One of the best ways to fight populism is to demand that the election promises are fulfilled.
P.P.S. Provided, of course, that the society is sick of this populism.
P.P.P.S. Which isn't happening in Ukraine yet ;(