Monday, January 17, 2005

The Role of the Siloviki

Today's New York Times has a fascinating story about the efforts of Ukrainian intelligence agencies to support the "Orange Revolution" and prevent Viktor Yanukovich from stealing the election. Senior intelligence officials (the siloviki) provided opposition candidate Viktor Yuschenko evidence of election fraud during the election and, on November 28, thwarted government plans to disperse demonstrators in Kiev in what might otherwise have become a crackdown comparable to the events in Beijing's Tienanmen Square in 1989.

Read C. J. Chivers' story here.