Roots and consequences of Ukraine's violence

[Dino Velvet]

Problems between these two countries is nothing new. The elephant in the room with The Olympics right next door.



http://news.yahoo.com/roots-conseque...6768.html?vp=1

Roots and consequences of Ukraine's violence

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and MARIA DANILOVA 4 hours ago

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ferocious street battles between protesters and police in the Ukrainian capital have left dozens dead and hundreds wounded in the past few days, raising fears that the ex-Soviet nation, whose loyalties are split between Russia and the West, is in an uncontrollable spiral of violence.
Following a shaky truce Wednesday, fighting flared up again with renewed fervor. Both the government and the opposition blame each other for widely using firearms. The opposition said the government used snipers to shoot protesters from roofs of buildings around Independence Square, known as the Maidan, which has been the epicenter of the anti-government protests.

Here is a guide to the crisis.

DIVIDED COUNTRY
The protests erupted in November when President Viktor 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 Ukraine's west, but has strong support in his native Russia-speaking east, as well as 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 riot police crackdown and their demands have quickly become more radical to include Yanykovych's resignation and early elections.

ROOTS OF VIOLENCE
The rallies, which were initially peaceful, spilled into violence in January after parliament, dominated by Yanukovych's supporters, passed repressive laws intended to quash the protest. For several days in January, 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.
Fighting ceased after Yanukovych made some concessions, including the retraction of the repressive legislation and the ouster of his prime minister. The opposition kept pushing for constitutional changes that would limit the presidential powers, and the refusal by pro-Yanukovych's lawmakers to endorse the amendments triggered the latest spasm of violence that began when the demonstrators assailed police who fought back.
Unlike last month, firearms were widely used this time, resulting in a much higher death toll.
Pitched battles led to further radicalization and made both sides unwilling to compromise. The opposition would accept nothing but Yanukovych's resignation. The president is apparently prepared to fight until the end.

GLOBAL POWER PLAYS
Both Russia and the West have made vigorous efforts to draw Ukraine into its orbit — and that tug of war continues in the crisis.
Moscow sees what is now Ukraine as the birthplace of Russian statehood and the Russian Orthodox Christianity. Most of modern-day Ukraine came under the control of the Russian czars in the 1700s after being part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Except for some western regions, which were part of Poland between the two world wars and then became part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine remained under Moscow's control until the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
President Vladimir Putin sees close economic and political ties with Ukraine as essential for the success of his project to build an alliance of ex-Soviet neighbors.
Russia has done its best to derail Ukraine's pact with the EU with a mixture of trade sanctions and promises. After Yanukovych spiked the deal, Moscow offered a $15 billion bailout to help Ukraine avoid an imminent default, but so far has only provided $3 billion, freezing further disbursements pending the outcome of the ongoing strife.
The European Union and the United States have urged Yanukovych to negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict. But numerous visits to Kiev by Western diplomats have achieved little result so far.
Exasperated, Washington and the EU warned Yanukovych they would introduce sanctions against those responsible for the latest violence. Sanctions including travel bans and asset freezes could force Yanukovych's hand by hitting powerful tycoons whose support is essential for his rule.

POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES
Protesters have seized government buildings in most western regions of Ukraine, where public support for Yanukovych is close to zero, declaring themselves independent from the central government. They seized hundreds of firearms at police and security agency headquarters and sent volunteers to join battles in Kiev, according to the government.
In the Russian-speaking east and south, where the majority of the population depends on trade with Russia and supports close ties with Moscow, pro-Western demonstrators have little public following. Some officials and lawmakers there have urged Yanukovych to quash protests in Kiev at any cost.
The sharp divide between east and west has fueled fears of a messy breakup of the country.
___
Isachenkov reported from Moscow.

[tsadriana]

Russia its bad ...everything to do with russia means war ,danger and pain.

[Prospero]

An excellent primer on the Ukraine's internal issues from the New York Review.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/arch...gination=false

[Dino Velvet]

Good article. Russia's protection is also Russia's dominance. Ukraine again in a tough spot.

But at that lunch with Kozhara, the man who would become foreign minister, he told a story that helps explain what happened next. He said that he had met colleagues from Kazakhstan who had warned him against joining the Russian-sponsored customs union. They said that in a meeting the Russians had explained what they wanted to do. When the Kazakhs began to put forward their own ideas, the Russians told them they were not interested because they had just made clear to them what would be done, whether they liked it or not.

What Kozhara’s story meant was that, at the heart of the party regarded as pro-Russian, there was little appetite for being absorbed into a new arrangement with Russia in which Ukrainian leaders would simply be reduced to taking orders.

Pro-Europeans also thought that the way Putin makes public his disdain for Yanukovych, who in his youth spent time in prison for robbery and assault, was helping to estrange their president from Russia. When they have met, Putin has made Yanukovych wait for hours, presumably to humiliate him; he spends as little time with him as possible. Putin despises Yanukovych, say Ukrainians, who also told me that they think their president is frightened of him.

Since the different parts of the country have such deep roots in different political traditions and histories, which are reflected in their different voting patterns, it is easy to understand why Ukrainian politicians might want to balance between the EU and Russia and extract concessions from one side by playing it against the other. But what has provoked the current crisis is that both Russia and the EU have become fed up with Ukraine’s hedging.

[dderek123]

Kiev Maidan Square Before and After photos.







http://rt.com/news/kiev-maidan-before-after-946/

[Dino Velvet]

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-kiev-death-toll-955/

[Ben]

[kittyKaiti]

Once again, the United States and the Freedom Patrol have decided to create a puppet ally via CIA provocateurs like they've been doing since Panama, Grenada, Nicaragua and in recent years, Egypt, Syria, Libya and now Venezuela. It is not long before Iran, North Korea, Cuba and others fall at the behest of the globalist .00000001%'rs.

[Stavros]

It seems obvious to me that the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Ukraine has been painful. There are internal fissures in the country which make it difficult to see how the two 'extremes': pro-Western European and Pro-Russian can find common ground, but I suspect that the larger failure of the economy may be a factor that is suggesting one route rather than the other. The more immediate reality of an economic bail-out for its economic woes with Russia rather than Europe may have been behind Yanukovych's volte face on EU relations, I don't know that the EU could have done much with a place as corrupt as the Ukraine which does not meet the criteria for EU membership though one wonders if the rules for EU membership or any other favoured status mean anything these days.

The curious thing in Ukraine, as Patrick Cockburn pointed out in The Independent a few days ago, is that in the Ukraine the popular protests are being waged against a democratically elected government, even with the caveats one can find for the odd two-tier system that is used in the Ukraine, where 50% of the votes are first past the post and 50% proportional representation. Either way, Yanukovuch's Party of the Regions won the election, and it is not as if he is the first President or Prime Minister to renege on his promises. The protests are a gift for the anti-Putin bloc which might include the EU although the American reaction was presented thus by Cockburn:

The television-friendly version of the protests has little time for complicated stuff about the role of outside powers or the competition between oligarchs and the ruling family. Understandably, it is the phrase "Fuck the EU" in the leaked phone call between Victoria Nuland, the top US diplomat for Europe, and Geoffrey Pyatt, US ambassador to Ukraine, that has attracted the attention. But it is worth listening to the rest of their talk on YouTube to appreciate the extent to which these senior US officials saw themselves as determining who should form a future Ukrainian government.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...s-9131002.html

The role played in the economy by oligarchs and cliques related to the President's family or others across the country, makes ordinary people feel left out -a feeling common in Egypt, and brought out in the article by Tim Judah in the link Prospero provided. I think there has to be an internal resolution in Ukraine before the broader issue of 'who comes first? Europe or Russia' is dealt with. If the protests lead to greater liberalisation of the economy the opportunities that result for a broader swathe of the population ought to be an important trend away from that shadow cast by the defunct Communist state and its immedate beneficiaries. It would be helpful if outside powers did not impose sanctions, or intervene, but these days Putin has put Russia in the firing line of numerous conflicts, and plenty of others are taking the bait.

One small point -there is a thow-away line in Judah's article on Azerbaijan that should be thrown away:
the Aliev family, which runs Azerbaijan, has no interest in Europe’s democratic values or trade. Its members have become rich on oil and gas and that is enough for them.

Judah ought to know that by now trade with Russia and the CIS bloc amounts to 14% of the total with 86% going to Europe, Asia and America -most of it might be oil and gas, and while Azerbaijan might not have much interest in Europe's 'democratic values', its trade is hugely important.

[dderek123]

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/incredible...iel-1527785773