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Well Scott, how is this not a question of democracy if the elections were fraudulent? If one oligarch (with control of the state apparatus and media) rigs the elections to unfairly oust another oligarch (with no such control), this is most certainly an issue of democratic standards. And no matter how inclined certain people are to search for the "real" reasons (on the strength of the weak assumption that respect for democratic standards is really an unimportant element in the foreign policy of european and north american states) the fact remains that as seen from most capitals, this is and remains the key issue. If Yanukovich had won without there being any serious concerns (to put it gently) over the validity of the elections, then the present situation would never have existed. Ukraine after all purports to possess a democratic political system, and expects to be treated like a democracy. Well, now it is being treated like a democracy, and in a democracy no political force in power can expect to retain its legitimacy unchallenged at home and abroad if it resorts to such methods.

BTW, who's claiming that Putin was behind the rigging?

cheers