Moscow flexes muscle in Ukraine

KIEV — Armed with petrodollars and success in restoring control over two enclaves in the Caucasus, Russia is increasing political pressure on Ukraine and trying to dampen its aspirations for NATO membership and closer ties with the West.

Moscow has tried to raise the stakes by having state-run Russian media accuse Mr. Yushchenko of selling arms to Georgia, which in August lost its provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Russian troops in a brief war.

Mr. Yushchenko and his supporters say Moscow has distributed Russian passports to ethnic Russians in the Crimea and has sought an alliance with Yushchenko rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

"Russia will do whatever it can to destabilize Ukraine," said Danylo Yanevsky, director of research at Kiev´s Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy. "It needs to ruin Ukraine for its own survival."

If Russia succeeds in boosting the number of Russian citizens in Crimea, it will have achieved the geopolitical equivalent of ballot-stuffing," Peter Dickinson, editor of Kiev-based Business Ukraine magazine, wrote recently.

[same play book as Georgia. same ending? Believe me, we've a vested interest...]

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