Posted on 02/21/2014 1:00:00 PM PST by 1rudeboy
KIEV, Ukraine — A frenzy of shuttle diplomacy and hard compromises produced what may be a breakthrough in Ukraine’s 3-month-old political standoff, a crisis that this week prompted the deadliest violence in the country’s modern history.
Protesters remain angry over corruption, crackdowns on democratic freedoms and President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to tighten trade ties with Russia instead of Europe. Radical members are threatening new violence.
But Yanukovych has ceded powers, the re-energized parliament is assuming new authority and events moved faster than ever Friday toward a possible end to the crisis.
Here’s a guide to what’s been happening:
DIVIDED COUNTRY
The protests began in November when Yanukovych abruptly refused to sign a long-anticipated political association and free trade agreement with the European Union, opting instead for closer ties with Russia. Yanukovych is widely despised in western Ukraine, but has strong support in the Russian-speaking east, where he’s from, as well as in the south.
The pro-Western demonstrators saw Yanukovych’s move as a betrayal of national interests and submission to Moscow, and demanded that that he reverse his decision. Their number swelled to hundreds of thousands after a brutal crackdown by riot police. Their demands grew more radical to include Yanukovych’s resignation and early elections.
His supporters in the east, meanwhile, see the protesters and the opposition as manipulated and financed by the West, and feel greater economic and cultural connection to Russia.
VIOLENCE ERUPTS
Peaceful rallies turned abruptly violent in January after parliament, dominated by Yanukovych supporters, passed repressive laws intended to quash the protest. Radical protesters hurled firebombs and stones at police, who retaliated with stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets. At least four people died and hundreds were injured.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
A bill to impeach Yanukovych has been filed in the Rada. Things are moving fast, indeed.
I think we should start a pool on how many hours after the Olympics closing ceremony Putin decides to invade.
I hope he is smarter than that: the opportune moment had passed, mobsters defecting from sinking administration with amazing speed, there will be no internal public support and with every minute more people realize how badly they were duped by Kremlin stooges.
Maybe they can dis-arm this unrest without having to resort to more violence. For a nation with painful memories of the USSR such links to Russia would be un-welcome (even if needed). But, this sort of bloodshed isn’t the answer. Both sides are wrong. Putin isn’t going to send in the tanks. He’s not Stalin. He can play a long haul game to bring Ukraine into his growing Empire. He doesn’t want a new USSR—Communism is dead and buried. That being said, Russian Nationalism is very much alive and a new Russian Empire is in the wind. Best bet, make a few concessions to Czar Putin, but keep independence and nationalism, make the best deal with him (other states have) and build the nation up. Violence doess little—The USA and EU will not come and save you—use your brain and not emotions to become a great land.
I wonder if Vegas is laying odds. I should call my "friend."
Excellent backgrounder-
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/mar/20/fascism-russia-and-ukraine/?insrc=hpss
It’s been mentioned that both of his son’s have left the country. Lots of private flights have been noted leaving Ukraine recently. Once the army announced they wouldn’t get involved, the writing was on the wall. Yanukovych crossed the line when snipers were ordered to fire on demonstrators.
So this government was elected by the people, and if this procedure is in accord with Ukraine’s law, then this should be the way to handle the situation. For the rest of the world to cheer on mob violence and overthrow of an elected government rather puts the lie to all the blather about promoting democracy, doesn’t it?
Anything a politicians says is BS. Laws don’t mean anything, elections don’t mean anything, and what they say one day can be a complete 180 from what they said the day before.
It takes a remarkable misunderstanding of history to make that sort of a comment.
The Soviets had regular elections, the Castros have them now in Cuba. Get yourself informed.
It's been that was since the "Arab Spring". These protestors have no taste for working within the law. They're all about overthrowing governments and creating chaos. Mygosh, haven't they learned from the destruction of Libya and Syria?
The Ukranian protestors don't seem to be asking for fair elections anymore. They're asking for the overthrow of an elected government. Regardless how bad their grievances are, it's not the answer.
What's going happen if it gets out of control here? People on both sides of the political spectrum no longer believe that the government represents us. I wonder how tolerant our government will be if protestors don't play by the rules imposed on them.
The Crimea was Khrushchev's payment to Ukraine for the Holodomor and the Soviet massacres in putting down the decade-long partisan war waged by Ukrainian resistance fighters. An invasion of the Crimea could mean a long back-and-forth war, except by drawing the line at the Crimean border, the Russians merely give Ukraine a safe haven from which to mount cross-border strikes. Imagine the Egypt-Israel artillery battles that led up to the 1967 war, and followed it all the way to the Yom Kippur War. It would devastate Ukraine's economy, but would be a festering sore in Russia's economy. Ukraine has 10x Georgia's (the country's) population and land area. It won't be a pushover. The principal result of a Russian invasion would be yet another addition to the long line of examples demonstrating the truth of Enoch Powell's observation that all political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics", on the back of Putin's political career.
How much you want to bet that the government snipers speak Russian and the protesters they shot speak Ukranian? Why is Julia Tymoshenko in Jail? Why was Yuschenko poisoned. The people running the Ukranian Govt. hate the Ukranian population.,
The Ukrainians are farther up the curve.
Reports coming in hot and heavy that Yanukovych has fled Kyiv and is en route to Khariv.
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