Friday, June 10, 2005

Kuchma Denies Claim Made By Soros

Here's Kuchma's response to Soros's claim that he ordered the military to shoot people on Maidan. Kuchma Denies Claim.

He called it fantasy.

Somebody though ordered the troops to Kiev on the 28th of November one week after the protests began. They were watched in real time by Western intelligence agencies as they made their way in. Smeshko, the ex-head of the SBU along with others say that a flurry of calls by people who were with him stopped it. The new head of the SBU does not deny this though he says that not everyone in that little claque did their duty.

(Some dismiss this as self-serving on Smeshko's part. I think it rings true though possibly exaggerated as the SBU head would say for that very reason. Smeshko says he was involved because he despised Yanukovych. This is just the sort of personal thing that has a realistic ring to it. If he had wanted to ingratiate himself with the opposition, wouldn't he have made the better case that he was with Yuschenko all along?)

Others of the opposition now say the military was prevented from coming to Kiev because taxis clogged the streets into the city stopping them. That might explain why they stopped, something noted by intelligence agencies, but it does not explain why they turned back. (It is a bit difficult for me that military men, men who moved on the order in the first place, would just throw up their hands in frustration when they saw the way blocked by taxis.)

Anyway, the final story on this has not been written either.

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