I seldom agree with Dick Morris, but when he's right, he's right.

Would-be czar Vladimir Putin has taken a giant step toward reasserting the regional hegemony of the former Soviet Union by stealing the election in Ukraine right under our noses.

As an unpaid, volunteer adviser to Viktor Yushchenko, the democratic candidate for president, I have seen, firsthand, how Viktor Yanukovich, the Putin candidate backed by a coalition of the Russian Mafia, oil barons, former KGB officials and communists stole the election and thwarted the obvious will of the voters.

While the former Soviet Union was composed of many smaller nations, now independent, the key was the combination of Russia and Ukraine. Russia’s 145 million people and Ukraine’s 45 million are the core of what was the Soviet empire.

Reuniting them has to be the primary goal of any aspiring Russian czar. But the Ukrainian people don’t want Russian domination.

Link.

I'm very disappointed in (though not surprised by) the fact that Morris neglects to attack President Bush for allowing this coup to take place. Morris, who has long played a roll in trying to help spread Democracy in the region (at least according to the factual Hollywood movie Spinning Boris, which I highly recommend) should get off of his uber-partisan high horse and call a spade a spade. The President messed up this situation by constantly pandering to Putin, and if the people of Ukraine are subjugated by Russia in the years to come, Bush will shoulder a great deal of the blame.