Free and fair elections would serve to reassure the Russian-speaking population (whoever wins) and tend to normalise the current situation, which is not what the separatists want.
The German TV magazine in question is none that jumps to conclusions. Hudson exaggerates a bit about what they say and what they find, but not much. They didn't say "Swoboda is behind the snipers", but they found Swoboda people of the putschist regime are not seriously investigating this crime which has evidence pointing back at them, adding quite a bunch to the already existing. You can find my summary, Caustic Logic's elaboration and a bit of pseudo-skeptical denial and bitching over there.
As to the general reporting in Germany - a lot of our "elite" journalists are members of this or the other "transatlantic" lobby organization and that has shown in their Ukraine reporting to an extent that it became obvious and triggered floods of critical comments accusing them of bias/propaganda. A professional poll asked the question if Germans want to "stand firm with "the West"" or take an intermediary position between West and Russia (it didn't give the option to stand firm with Russia). While 45% answered in the "proper" way, 49% wanted to take an intermediary position, in the former Eastern Germany even 60%. That shocked the pre$$titudes and some politicians even more, and they started to write whiny articles about anti-americanism etc, trying to pretend that the NSA scandal never happened and people hadn't grasped the regime chance pattern in the Ukraine and forgot about illegal wars started on a pack of lies, which in return triggered even greater waves of mocking/rejecting their reporting. Some politicians made statements of the old kind of "we need to elect us a new people".
So Hudson's might be quite right there as well when he adds Germany to the voluminous lists of countries where a majority now utterly despises what became of the USA (regime) and doesn't buy any further lies.
The "desperate despot" from the quote you brought to my attention? HE? THE MONSTER?
The German TV magazine in question is none that jumps to conclusions. Hudson exaggerates a bit about what they say and what they find, but not much. They didn't say "Swoboda is behind the snipers", but they found Swoboda people of the putschist regime are not seriously investigating this crime which has evidence pointing back at them, adding quite a bunch to the already existing. You can find my summary, Caustic Logic's elaboration and a bit of pseudo-skeptical denial and bitching over there.
As to the general reporting in Germany - a lot of our "elite" journalists are members of this or the other "transatlantic" lobby organization and that has shown in their Ukraine reporting to an extent that it became obvious and triggered floods of critical comments accusing them of bias/propaganda. A professional poll asked the question if Germans want to "stand firm with "the West"" or take an intermediary position between West and Russia (it didn't give the option to stand firm with Russia). While 45% answered in the "proper" way, 49% wanted to take an intermediary position, in the former Eastern Germany even 60%. That shocked the pre$$titudes and some politicians even more, and they started to write whiny articles about anti-americanism etc, trying to pretend that the NSA scandal never happened and people hadn't grasped the regime chance pattern in the Ukraine and forgot about illegal wars started on a pack of lies, which in return triggered even greater waves of mocking/rejecting their reporting. Some politicians made statements of the old kind of "we need to elect us a new people".
So Hudson's might be quite right there as well when he adds Germany to the voluminous lists of countries where a majority now utterly despises what became of the USA (regime) and doesn't buy any further lies.
