Re: re

"Well, the point is not that Yanukovich is pro-russian" -- that's precisely the point -- "the west" declared him to be such, and is interfering in Ukrainian politics precisely because of that. Find me a single recent article whose purpose is to explain "why we should care about Ukrainian election" and which does not mention the need to "stand up" to Russia (or something similar).

"The point is that nobody believes the elections were tolerably fair" -- except millions Yanukovich voters, that is.

"and that Yanukovich was proclaimed the winner as a result of large scale election fraud." -- you have cause and effect backwards. "The west" claims there was large scale election fraud because Yanukovich was declared the winner. If Yuschenko won, the election would've been declared free and democratic. Same scenario was played out recently in Georgia -- Saakashvili received an impossible amount of votes, but not a single western election observer mentioned anything about fraud...

The reality is that while there was a lot of fraud, it was in favor of both candidates, and there is no way to determine who actually won. Therefore, an honest observer would demand a new election free of fraud, rather than its favored candidate to be declared the winner. "The west" is acting extremely disingenuously in this case.

"That's a bit rich for countries and organisations who see themselves as a community of values in a very real sense." -- well, I guess you need to learn a lesson that in a real democracy, people might not always choose a candidate you favor. Right now western interference in political processes of other countries is inherently anti-democratic, because its purpose is not ensure a free and fair selection of candidates. Its purpose is to install friendly regimes in as many countries as possible, regardless of the wishes of the population. From an outside point of view, the only constant value that this community possesses throughout the last several centuries is imperialism. Only the form changes, the content remains the same.