According to this crazy Times article, the success of the Ukranian Orange Revolution is due, at least in part, to the machinations of the S.B.U., Ukraine’s successor agency to the K.G.B.

If the article is to believed, the S.B.U. chief, General Ihor P. Smeshko, worked feverishly in secret to protect the protestors from other military and intelligence entities that were chomping at the bit to squash the uprising, paving the way for the second round of elections that handed victory to opposition candidate Yushchenko. One of the strangest twists in this very strange story: Smeshko was present at the dinner in the summer of 2004 at which Yushenko is believed to have been served a helping of the poison dioxin.

- posted by Simon Marcus @ Monday, January 17, 2005