What is the color revolution in Ukraine?

Orange Revolution (Ukraine: помаранчевареволюц? я, also translated as Chestnut Flower Revolution) refers to a series of protests and political events in Ukraine from 2004 to 2005 due to serious corruption, influence on voters and direct election fraud during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election.

In the Ukrainian presidential election of 5438+1October 3 1 in June 2004, since none of the contestants reached the 50% majority required by law, a new election was held between viktor yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych, the two contestants who got the most votes. However, many observers at home and abroad in Ukraine reported that Yanukovich's official victory was caused by fraud, which was also widely felt by the public. The election fraud led to this protest.

In Yushchenko's election campaign, orange was used as its representative color, so this campaign used orange as a protest color. The symbol of this sport is orange ribbon and a book with так! Ющенко! ("Yes! Yushchenko! " ) flag. After the election results were announced, millions of protesters gathered in the center of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Yushchenko's supporters set up a tent city that was constantly occupied for 24 hours, and a series of protests, sit-ins and general strikes organized by the opposition broke out all over Ukraine.

As a result of these protest movements, the Supreme Court of Ukraine declared the results of this re-election invalid and stipulated that the re-election be held on February 26th of the same year at 65438. This second re-election was strictly observed. Ukrainian domestic and international observers have confirmed that there is basically no problem in this second re-election. Yushchenko won re-election with a clear result of 52%. Yanukovych got 44%. On June 23, 2005, Yushchenko came to power, marking the final victory of the Orange Revolution.

electoral fraud

The orange ribbon is a symbol of the orange revolution in Ukraine. Ribbon is usually used to represent the nonviolent protest between Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and opposition player viktor yushchenko, which started the next day. The official result is that Yanukovych leads Yushchenko by 3%, but the poll results after the vote prove that Yushchenko should lead 1 1%. The difference between the two results is too big. Yanukovych's supporters defined this difference as Yushchenko's good relationship with the media, while Yushchenko's supporters announced many election fraud incidents that were found by local and foreign observers in favor of Yanukovych. Because there were allegations of fraud in the first vote (but not as serious as the re-election), the condemnation of fraud received great attention. The scale of the first vote fraud is not very clear, and all parties agree that if there was fraud at that time, the scale did not reach the point of affecting the final result.

protest

After allegations of election fraud appeared on election night, Yushchenko publicly appealed to the public to protest. 165438+1Since October 22nd, large-scale protests have broken out in many cities in Ukraine, the largest of which is Independence Square in Kiev, the capital, with an estimated 500,000 people attending [1]. 165438+1On October 23rd, protesters marched peacefully to the Ukrainian parliament, many of whom wore orange clothes or held orange flags.

The municipal governments of Kiev, Lviv and other cities symbolically announced that they would not accept the official results, which won wide support from their citizens. Yushchenko took the presidential oath symbolically. When Yushchenko took the oath in parliament, only his supporters were present and the hall was half empty. Although it has no legal effect, it shows Yushchenko's determination not to accept the election results caused by this fraud. Opponents of Yushchenko accused Yushchenko of breaking the law. Some moderate Yushchenko supporters are ambiguous about this move. Some observers believe that this symbolic oath may be beneficial to Yushchenko if the incident develops more sharply. In this case, Yushchenko's oath may be used to show that he has more legal rights to command the army and police organizations than Yanukovych who tried to obtain the presidency by fraud.

At the same time, in Yanukovych's main stronghold, local officials in the east and south of Ukrainian companies started a series of actions, threatening that if Yanukovych's victory was not accepted, they would split from Ukraine, or at least join a federal state with other parts of the country, and the areas they managed would have a special constitution. Pro-Yanukovych demonstrations spread in eastern Ukraine, and some Yanukovych supporters also arrived in Kiev. But there are far fewer demonstrators in Kiev who support Yanukovych than Yushchenko. It is estimated that on some days, millions of people took to the streets of Kiev regardless of the cold weather.

Yushchenko

Yushchenko negotiated a peaceful solution with outgoing President leonid kuchma, but this negotiation broke down on June 24th. The Central Election Commission officially declared Yanukovych the winner, but the Commission itself was accused of being involved in tampering with the election results, suppressing the data of local election results they obtained, and using illegal computer servers to tamper with the results. The day after the official results were announced, Yushchenko made a speech to his supporters, asking them to start mass protests, general strikes, sit-ins and so on. Destroy government work and force the government to admit defeat;

Conflicts can only be resolved by people who express their will, so the National Salvation Council announced a nationwide political strike.

65438+February 1 The Ukrainian Parliament issued a resolution strongly condemning the actions of separatists and federalists and voting no confidence in the Ukrainian Cabinet. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yanukovych denied the vote. According to the Ukrainian Constitutional Parliament, distrust of the government means that the government should resign, but if Prime Minister Yanukovych and President Kuchma do not cooperate, the parliament has no means to force the government to resign.

On February 3rd, 65438, the Supreme Court of Ukraine finally broke through this political deadlock. The Supreme Court ruled that the election result could not be determined because of serious fraud. It declared the official election results invalid and ordered a new election on February 26, 65438. Yushchenko's supporters thought this decision was their victory, while Yanukovych's supporters had hoped that if the election was invalid, the whole election would be held again, not just re-election. On February 8th, 65438, Parliament amended the law, which provided a legal external structure and a new government system for this election. Yushchenko easily won re-election and officially announced his victory on February 28, 65438.

The role of Ukrainian intelligence and security agencies

The New York Times reported that Ukrainian security organs played a very unusual role in the Orange Revolution. The intelligence and security organs of Ukraine were originally KGB of the former Soviet Union, but they supported the opposition in this revolution. According to The New York Times,1October 28th, 165438+ Ukrainian interior minister mobilized more than 10,000 policemen to suppress the demonstrations in Kiev's Independence Square. However, the Ukrainian security organs informed the opposition leaders in advance. The leaders of the Ukrainian military intelligence agencies called everywhere and asked them to prevent bloodshed. The heads of the security organs and the military anti-espionage organs all admitted to calling the Minister of the Interior personally and asking him to withdraw from the repressive forces. Finally, the Ministry of the Interior retreated and stopped the bloodshed.

According to The New York Times, these security and intelligence officials not only took these measures to prevent bloodshed, but also refused to serve Yanukovych as president. One of the reasons is that Yanukovych was sentenced for robbery and martial arts when he was young. Moreover, there have been rumors that Yanukovych is related to corrupt businessmen, and Yanukovych may indeed cheat in the election if elected. Differences between the heads of Ukrainian security agencies, Smeshk and Yanukovych, may also have played a role. Obviously, many officers in the security agencies support Yushchenko. Yushchenko's people obtained important evidence of fraud recorded by government officials who illegally eavesdropped on Yushchenko's election advisory group and discussed how to deal with it. The evidence can't be provided by the security agencies.

Intervention by foreign forces

Many analysts believe that the success of the Orange Revolution is based on the strategy first formulated in the process of overthrowing Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, and later won again in the Rose Revolution of Georgia. Although these movements are spontaneous, they are all realized on the basis of extensive grassroots activities and opposition alliances. After each election, the government tried to maintain power through election fraud, and demonstrations broke out successfully.

Student activists have played a very important role in these movements. One of the most famous is the Serbian resistance organization that supports Vojislav costou Nica's youth organization. A similar organization in Georgia is called Kmara. A similar organization in Belarus, the Bison Movement, failed. A similar organization in Ukraine is called Pora. The Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee of the Georgian Parliament and other members of the "Enough" movement provided technical advice to Ukrainian opposition leaders in their non-violent struggle.

Many western governments and non-governmental organizations provided funds and trained them to organize non-violent resistance strategies. According to the Guardian, these institutions include the US Foreign Office, the US Agency for International Development, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Peace Association, the NGO Freedom House and the Open Society Institute of billionaire george soros. Since 1988 [3], the National Foundation for Democracy funded by the federal government of the United States has been supporting the civil democratic construction activities in Ukraine. Jean Sharp's article on non-violent struggle is the strategic basis of these student movements.

On the other hand, Russia directly and strongly supported Yanukovych in this election. The scope of this support is still controversial, but some facts are beyond reproach. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Kuchma and Yanukovych many times before and during the election. When the official results were announced and questioned, Putin congratulated Yanukovych many times, which brought great embarrassment to Putin and Yanukovych later. During the election, the Russian official media reported Yanukovych very actively, and Yanukovych had many Russian advisers close to the Kremlin. Many observers agree that Yanukovych has received great support from the Russian state-controlled economic system. Other unconfirmed allegations include Russia's involvement in Yushchenko poisoning.

Due to the long-term tension between Warsaw and the Kremlin, Poland openly and formally supported Ukraine's democratization movement and Ukraine's accession to the European Union.