Russia has sharply criticized the backing that pro-democracy groups in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan received from Western countries, and apparently is concerned that those countries' uprisings could be repeated in close Russian allies, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Russian Security Council chief Igor Ivanov last week criticized the uprisings as unconstitutional changes of power. That brought a cold rejection from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which said Sunday that "the international community has highly assessed the degree of conformity of last year's presidential elections with democratic standards."
The protests in post-Soviet countries raised the prospect of similar outpourings in Russia, where Putin is under increasing criticism for apparent authoritarian leanings. The WWII ceremonies' respect for Stalin could be seen as reinforcing that tendency, and Putin himself has given mixed signals, claiming Russia is reforming but speaking with respect and even nostalgia for the Soviet Union.
RSS