Ukraine's presidential polls backfire

If the US and the EU were really as passionate about promoting democracy and constitutional government as they claim to be, they would have recognized the legitimacy of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's government, which was elected for a set term by a globally recognized free and fair election and with a clear majority.

Instead, the democratic process that has at least kept Ukraine peaceful and secure since independence 22 and half years ago was heedlessly destroyed in the February coup after Yanukovych rejected the harsh terms of the economic diktat that EC negotiators had laid down for Ukraine to be associated with the EU.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has now overseen over two votes that produced clear majorities for de facto independence in two eastern regions of Ukraine. However, he appears so far to have no intention of incorporating those two new structures directly into Russia, as he did with Crimea. This move may be seen as a signal of restraint in the face of the latest US sanctions, especially as Putin has sent clear messages to Washington and NATO both that he is willing to revive dialogue and defuse tensions as long as Russia's national security interests are recognized in a region that has always been part of its heartland.

The rush to hold fresh presidential polls on terms dictated by the Kiev regime was never going to restore the bonds of mutual tolerance, compromise and trust that were necessary to hold Ukraine together. National elections on these rushed terms never had a prayer of restoring Ukraine back to the status quo of uneasy balance between the east and west of the country that had prevailed since independence.

The new presidential election was always about hypocrisy, about rushing to establish a new legitimacy, a new political reality that the democratic world could be rounded up to support.

However, Putin foiled that game plan by holding referendums on his own terms in Crimea and the two eastern Ukrainian regions first. Now, the forces in eastern Ukraine that reject the February coup in Kiev are responding with escalating violence of their own at the attempt to force Kiev's legitimacy down their throats. Nothing could demonstrate more clearly the hollowness and hypocrisy of the current Ukrainian national election process.

The author is a political columnist for the Post-Examiner chain of online newspapers in the United States and a senior fellow at the American University in Moscow.