Biden refuses to take any responsibility for destabilizing the region with his support of Ukraine regime change in 2014.
what did Biden do exactly that caused Yanukovich to be charged with mass murder and flee Ukraine for exile in Russia.
NFBW 230511^b
In 2002 Ukrainian Pres.
Leonid Kuchma appointed Yanukovych prime minister. Yanukovych, who did not speak Ukrainian prior to his appointment, shared Kuchma’s desire to maintain close ties with
Russia. As the 2004 presidential election approached, Yanukovych was presented as Kuchma’s clear successor, and Russian Pres.
Vladimir Putin offered support for his candidacy. During the campaign Yanukovych’s chief opponent, the pro-Western
Viktor Yushchenko, became ill after an apparent assassination attempt, and the race drew international attention. The results of the first round of the election were inconclusive. In the November
runoff Yanukovych was declared the winner, in spite of exit polling that showed Yushchenko with a commanding lead. Yushchenko’s supporters took to the streets by the tens of thousands in a series of protests that were dubbed the
Orange Revolution, and the runoff results were overturned by the Ukrainian Supreme Court. In a new runoff held on December 26, 2004, Yanukovych was soundly defeated.
As a fuel crisis and parliamentary gridlock plagued Yushchenko’s administration, Yanukovych began to rebuild his power base. In 2006 Yanukovych’s
Party of Regions scored a victory in parliamentary elections, and Yushchenko was compelled to name Yanukovych prime minister. However, Yanukovych lost that post in 2007 to
Yuliya Tymoshenko, a major figure in the Orange Revolution and, like Yanukovych, a challenger to Yushchenko in the presidential election of 2010.
In January 2010 Yanukovych, Tymoshenko, and Yushchenko faced off in the first round of presidential polling. Yushchenko, capturing only about 5 percent of the vote, was eliminated, and a runoff election between Yanukovych and Tymoshenko was held on February 7, 2010. Yanukovych won a narrow victory by taking 48.95 percent of the vote to 45.47 percent for Tymoshenko. Although international observers found the poll to be fair, Tymoshenko
denied the validity of the results, and her parliamentary bloc refused to attend Yanukovych’s inauguration ceremony on February 25, 2010.
As president, Yanukovych promptly demonstrated his pro-Russian leanings. In April 2010 he struck a deal with Russian Pres.
Dmitry Medvedev to extend Russia’s lease of the port at
Sevastopol, the base of the Russian
Black Sea Fleet, until 2042. In exchange, Ukraine would receive a reduction in the price of Russian
natural gas. The parliamentary debate over the agreement devolved into a melee, with some members of the opposition throwing eggs and lighting smoke bombs, but the measure narrowly passed. Yanukovych drew additional ire from his opponents when he stated that the
Great Famine of 1932–33 (a Soviet-era famine in which four to five million Ukrainians died) should not be considered an act of
genocide carried out by Soviet authorities against the Ukrainian people, as former president Yushchenko had declared.
A decision by the
Constitutional Court in October 2010 greatly expanded the powers of the presidency. In 2011 Tymoshenko was charged with abuse of power and sentenced to seven years in prison. The following year Tymoshenko’s interior minister, Yuri Lutsenko, received a four-year sentence for similar charges; many observers characterized both prosecutions as politically motivated. In October 2012 the Party of Regions won the largest share of seats in parliamentary elections, and most observers characterized the polling as relatively free and fair. It appeared that Yanukovych was attempting to pivot toward the West in April 2013, when he ordered the release of Lutsenko in advance of the signing of an association agreement with the
European Union.
Just days before that treaty was to be signed in November 2013, Yanukovych pulled out of the deal, triggering a
scramble among EU leaders and sparking a wave of popular protests in
Kiev. Putin pledged billions in financial assistance as the demonstrations in Kiev’s Maidan (Independence Square) continued into 2014. Yanukovych responded by enacting a series of anti-protest measures that were hastily repealed by the parliament after two demonstrators were killed in clashes with police in January 2014. Protests spread to eastern Ukraine, traditionally Yanukovych’s stronghold, and violence in the Maidan escalated dramatically. More than 70 people were killed in clashes with police and security forces in February 2014, as the remaining support for Yanukovych and his administration crumbled. The parliament voted to impeach Yanukovych on February 22; he responded by denouncing the action as a coup and fleeing the capital. His whereabouts unknown, protesters descended upon Yanukovych’s opulent residence outside Kiev, and Ukraine’s
interim government issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of mass murder
I’m not seeing Biden’s responsibility for what Yanukovych did that pissed the majority of Ukrainians off and against him.
What was Biden’s hand in all that.
