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Article: Putin Trips Up; It was a classic geopolitical power struggle. Russia's leader thought Ukraine was in his pocket. Ukrainians thought otherwise. They won, and so did the West.(contested election)
- Article from:
- Newsweek International
- Article date:
- December 13, 2004
- Author:
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Byline: Michael Hirsh and Frank Brown (With Eve Conant and John Barry in Washington)
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, an ex-convict turned apparatchik named Viktor Yanukovych, the chosen successor of the country's outgoing strongman, Leonid Kuchma.
A flagrantly fraud-tainted election followed. Exit polls showed that his man had lost badly, far beyond any possible margin of error, and international observers were quick ...