"I am the president of Iraq"!
Posted on 02/22/2014 12:40:03 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich fled Kiev yesterday — and apparently so did much of his security force and perhaps even his ministers. The police in Kyiv have switched sides, now claiming that they serve the people and not the Yanukovich government. Protesters who spent weeks bottled up in Independence Square have now taken control of the capital of Ukraine, while the Ukrainian parliament struggles to keep the country from splitting in two:
Protesters took control of Ukraine’s capital on Saturday, seizing the president’s office as parliament sought to oust him and form a new government. An aide to President Viktor Yanukovych said he had left Kiev for his support base in the country’s Russian-speaking east, but that he has no intention of abandoning power.
CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports from Kiev that the ministry that controls the police force said it now serves the Ukrainian people and shares their desire for speedy change.
In a special parliament session, lawmakers warned that the country risks being split in two. The country’s western regions want to be closer to the EU and have rejected Yanukovych’s authority in many cities, while eastern Ukraine – which accounts for the bulk of the nation’s economic output – favors closer ties with Russia.
The parliament may want to prevent a split, but they’re not sitting on their hands, either. They have called for elections on May 25, seven months earlier than the agreement between Euromaidan and the Yanukovich government. That has the potential to split the country even further, if the eastern provinces remain loyal to Yanukovich. They also demanded Yanukovich’s resignation:
CNN wondered earlier what happened to the president. His departure from Kyiv was so abrupt and complete that even his opulent residence was left completely unguarded:
Yanukovich ended up in Kharkiv, where he gave a televised address claiming to be the victim of a coup:
“Everything that is happening today is, to a greater degree, vandalism and bandits and a coup d’etat,” Yanukovych said in a televised statement, clearly shaken and making long pauses in his speech.
He said decisions made by parliament Friday and Saturday “are all illegal” and compared the situation to the rise of Nazis in the 1930s. He said he would not sign any of the measures passed by parliament, which include trimming his powers and releasing his jailed arch-rival, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The president said his car had been shot at, adding: “But I have no fear. I am overwhelmed by grief for our country. I feel responsibility.”
The eastern provinces want to call up volunteer militias to reinstate Yanukovich:
The president was in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where governors, provincial officials and legislators gathered alongside top Russian lawmakers and approved a statement calling on regional authorities to take full responsibility for constitutional order.
Some called for the formation of volunteer militias to defend against protesters from western regions, even as they urged army units to maintain neutrality and protect ammunition depots.
If they’re looking for help from the army, they will be sorely disappointed. The military in Ukraine insists that they will remain neutral in the political fight:
#BREAKING Ukraine army rules out any involvement in crisis
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 22, 2014
And as if all this wasn’t enough, reports this morning say that Yulia Tymoshenko has been released from prison:
#BREAKING Jailed Ukraine opposition leader Tymoshenko released: AFP
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 22, 2014
That will fuel the opposition’s passion and perhaps Yanukovich’s supporters as well. How long before Yanukovich gets desperate enough to call for Russian tanks to reinstall him in Kyiv? We’ll see, but the Olympics will finish tomorrow. After that, all bets are off.
Update: Lenta reports that the governor of the Kharkiv region and the mayor of Kharkiv proper have both fled to Russia (via Julia Ioffe). Maybe Yanukovich’s support in the eastern part of Ukraine isn’t as robust as he’d like to think.
The German papers are reporting that documents dumped in a lake near Yanokovitch's residence include the names of the journalists attacked (some killed) within the past year.
Looks like he was playing directly from Putin's playbook and bears personal responsibility for some the murders that have taken place.
Once the Olympics are over, Russia will send in peacekeepers.
Poor Ukraine.
So far from God yet so close to Russia.
Don’t think so - too obvious. Russia will more likely support separatist movements in the East and South and seek autonomy for those regions or partition of the country. The West will resist and the unrest will continue.
Under the Ukrainian Constitution, the President cannot be impeached and removed from office unless he is medically disabled or has been convicted of a crime. Then there must be a 3/4 vote in the Rada to remove, and then the Constitutional Court must review the matter.
None of this has happened. He is still the President as of now.
This looks to me like a copy redo on the 1917 overthrow of the Czar in Russia. European money and financial interests were party to the overthrow of the Czar Nicolas regime. Thinking they could control the outcome the bankers bankrolled the likes of Lenin, Trotsky and other communists leading to Stalin. True Russians do not like to be bullied by European money changers even when they accept help as in WWII.
This IS a revolutionary coup. Neither side is pristine, but the woman who is now about to take over is a left-wing flake, backed by George Soros. And it was Soros’s money that armed and trained the rebels.
Not really what we want. But I’m sure Obama is smiling. If nothing else, lots of people being killed and sections of the city being burned—just what he likes to see, good Muslim that he is.
Only on paper.
"I am the president of Iraq"!
7 Cool Political Maps That Show How Old Historical Events Still Haunt The World Today
http://www.businessinsider.com/seven-maps-that-prove-that-history-is-forever-2013-9
Take a look at the Ukraine map. It looks like the political divide that exists there today dates back to the Kievan Rus of 882-1283.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etmRI2_9Q_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5zskHDjp8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47kW2SAtdSE
Sounds like Idi Amin to me
Scary is that you have a number of folks, rudeboy in particular, who have been pushing the Soros/Obama/EU/McCain propaganda, here on FR
Ukraine is going to be a bloody mess...and the Free Trader Communist Globalists will be pushing US military involvement
Ignore Alex Jones’ Soros Obsessives!
This is not a coincidence. Yanukovych is reportedly in Kharkiv, a pro-Yanukovych stronghold (or it’s supposed to be), and he’s at a conference of the “Ukrainian Front,” a collection of politicians, and pro-government street thugs, who are willing to die for the President. But as a recent article by John Schindler, on The XX Committee, points out, the Ukranian Front appears to be deeply influenced and controlled by the Russian government. In fact, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexei Pushkov, is present in Kharkiv right now. Here’s what the report has to say about the nature of the Ukrainian Front:
It seems Moscow is not pleased with its protege Yanukovych and his inability to crush the opposition, so it is forming a new grouping to “assist” the hardliners. Given that the appearance of the Ukrainian Front has been heralded with a birth announcement in the Kremlin’s official newspaper, Russian approval and support can be assumed.
Moreover, the embrace of Stalinist-era rhetoric by the Ukrainian Front indicates a great deal, and will serve as a needless irritant towards Ukrainians who detest Stalin and his murderous legacy. In a similar vein, Communist activists have unveiled a bust of Stalin in Western Ukraine, a provocation that is about as offensive to most locals there as a statue of Hitler would be in the rest of Europe. Of course, hailing Stalin’s victories in the 1940′s is of a piece with the current Kremlin vilification campaign against all Ukrainians who do not want their country to be subjugated by Russia, a nasty agitprop line that regrettably has Western supporters, not all of them unwitting dupes.
Now that the Ukrainian Front has entered the picture, with Moscow’s imprimatur, expect the situation in Ukraine to only get worse. It would be difficult to overstate the danger Ukraine and Europe are in at the moment thanks to intimidation, meddling and provocation by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin. European governments would be well advised to not permit naked Russian interference of a violent and coercive sort in Ukrainian politics: this cannot end well.
And now we have rallies in Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Fleet is anchored, in favor of reuniting with Russia (jump to update 1410).
Twitter / MaximEristavi: 16 Lenin monuments went down ...twitter.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gencM6PTrGU
police quit refuse to shoot countrymen & support protestors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UmYpOWyju4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t0MzQZ3gYc
Putin might just do that to protect the Russian speaking Ukrainians from harm by the rebel Ukranians who don't want any part of Russia..
There is precedent for this type of intervention. In 1939 when I was a kid, Hitler went into another country to protect the Germans living in the Sudetan land.- tom
Twitter / MaximEristavi: 16 Lenin monuments went down ...twitter.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gencM6PTrGU
police quit refuse to shoot countrymen & support protestors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UmYpOWyju4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t0MzQZ3gYc
Dumb....just dumb....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.