Posted on 01/19/2014 6:31:27 AM PST by 1rudeboy
Up to 100,000 Ukrainians massed in the capital Kiev on Sunday in defiance of sweeping new laws aimed at stamping out anti-government protests.
The rally, the biggest this year in a cycle of pro-Europe protests convulsing the former Soviet republic for the past two months, was spurred by the legislation rushed through parliament last week and which the opposition says will lead to a police state.
Significantly raising the stakes in the confrontation with
President Viktor Yanukovich, opposition leaders announced a plan to gather people's signatures expressing no confidence in his leadership and that of parliament.
Denouncing as unconstitutional last Thursday's hurried vote in parliament by Yanukovich's supporters, they called for moves to set up a parallel structure of power - including a people's assembly and a new constitution.
"Yanukovich and his henchmen want to steal our country. Ukraine is united as never before in its struggle against those in power today, in its determination not to allow a dictatorship," declared boxer-turned politician Vitaly Klitschko, the strongest potential challenger for the presidency.
Though setting up an alternative power structure may not be realistic, Sunday's turn-out suggested it could also be difficult for the authorities to try to solve the crisis by use of force despite the court ban and the new laws.
Another opposition leader, far-right-nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok, dismissed the laws as unconstitutional as he spoke from the tribune on Kiev's main Independence Square.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Thanks..sbt.
One of the three main opposition parties in Ukraine is Svaboda, an ultra-nationalist group with ties to other European national socialist organizations. They are descended from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a paramilitary organization which fought alongside the Nazis in occupied Ukraine during World War II.
Svaboda has been engaged in violent demonstrations against the elected government in Ukraine for over a year and no doubt were the main protagonists in yesterday’s violence in Kiev.
He looks like a REAL Russian bear! Putin looks like a child next to him.
pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovich, new president of the Ukraine
The article on her in Wikipedia gives one a taste of Ukranian politics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yulia_Tymoshenko
Tymoshenko is probably lucky to "only" be imprisoned, at this point: Then candidate and eventual President Viktor Yushchenko survived dioxin poisoning in 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko
Oops, sorry - partially redundant info. there about Yushchenko at the end of my prev. post.
BTW, does anyone know why putting pics and hot-links in the same post doesn’t work, for the links? I’ve tried to follow the HTML Sandbox guidelines, but then the links don’t show up at all. I’ll admit I’m a HTML novice. :-)
the UIA were murderous. They killed Poles and Jews with a vicioiusness like the RPA (the Russian soldiers who turned coat) they were so appalling in the Warsaw uprising that they even disgusted the SS.
Southern Slavs and Western Slavs live in pretty democratic nations
Yushchenko was a registered member of Communist Party in Soviet Union, but he was not a political power person. His background was accounting and he made it into Deputy Director of a bank. People at higher levels were pressured into joining the Communist Party and probably one could not have been promoted to Deputy Director level if he refused. Many people just signed the papers and that was it for them.
“...Many people just signed the papers and that was it for them....”
Yeah, I get that... to be able to advance anywhere, they probably had to “play ball”.
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