Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Bad day for oranges

If the Kyiv mayoral elections were to take place right now, Leonid Chernovetsky would receive 36-41% of the vote, Vitaliy Klychko 20-24%, BYuT's candidate Aleksandr Turchynov 10-15%, and PoR's Vasyl Horbal' 2.4-4.5%.

BYuT are wondering how they can extracate themselves from the mess, having forced through the early mayoral elections in the first place. If Turchynov steps aside to increase the chances of another 'democratic' candidate succeeding, then it will be a humiliation for the high profile deputy PM Turchynov, and also for BYuT. But if he remains a candidate and receives only 10% or so of the votes, and loopy Chenovetsky wins, this will be and even greater humiliation.

Yesterday President Yushchenko appointed several political 'big-beasts' to serve on the supervisory council of the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University. Amongs their number was disgraced former President Leonid Danylovych Kuchma.

Chairman of the council is to be Volodymyr Lytvyn - head of his own 20-seat parliamentary block. He is widely known as an academic plagiarist.

I wonder what the students make of all of this..

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Foreign Affairs article is only one instance of plagiarism -- I've heard stories of 500-page history volumes published (solely under his name) every 6 months or so, even amidst his most intense political work. Some Shevchenko students I talked with agreed that it wasn't a good example to necessarily set, but he's a powerful man high up in the Academy of Sciences.

If Yekhanurov wasn't busy being defense minister, I'd venture he'd be a pretty good candidate for a role at the university. Apparently he still guest lectures in the econ department there.