UKRAINE

ANDREW KUCHINS, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Moscow Center Director, December 3, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: How are people able to determine that Ukraine election results have been altered? I recall the Filipino election that was discovered had stolen votes as the people putting the results into the computers came forth and proclaimed that the results being computed were different from the numbers they were putting in. I half joke that I know Ukraine exit polls couldn’t be the answer to realizing the results were wrong, for it that was the cause, they could challenge our election results. What enable the Ukraine people and Secretary Powell to determine election improprieties existed?
KUCHINS: We still do not have a complete picture of the fraud and falsification that took place in the election and may never have a complete picture. But there is enough documented evidence at this point to conclude it was very significant. One, there were eyewitnesses to some regions in the East being bussed around to different polling places to vote multiple times like old Chicago style. Two, there is evidence in some precincts where the voter turnout was supposedly over 100%--obviously impossible. On the exit polling issue, that is just one of a number of data points leading to conclusion of falsification of results. The differences that we saw in Michigan and Ohio were reasonably close to being within the realm of mathematic probability accounting for margin of error. The differences of exit polls in Ukraine, however, showing a 10+% advantage for Yushchenko compared to the nearly 3% margin of Yanukovych victory is still well outside of any mathematical margin of error. A number of these exit polling organizations have strong international reputations—the official Russian explanation argues that Western-sponsored exit polls were skewed to favor Yushcnenko while Russian supported exit polls reached an opposite conclusion. Recall that when Putin was asked why he prematurely congratulated Yanukovych before Central Election Commission announced results, he said it was on the basis of exit polls. Disingenuous response? Your call.

GENE WEINGARTEN, Washington Post Staff Writer, and LIZ KELLY, washingtonpost.com “chatwoman”, December 14, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: Ukrainian women are just like American women. I concluded this when I read that Yuschenko’s wife told him after he ate the poisoned soup that she could smell the poison. Notice that she waited until after he ate the soup to tell him?
KELLY: One can only conclude that Ukranian men just be just like American men.
WEINGARTEN: Yeah. This was great.