Militias Hunt Kiev Looters From Central Bank to Bling Palace

By EmmaZahn on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 4:10pm |

It’s after midnight and a former Ukrainian special forces officer going by the name of Jean is racing into central Kiev to round up reinforcements.

There’s chaos at the palace of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. Jean and his team of eight volunteers, who include a middle-aged owner of a textile business and an unemployed boxer, need to keep order in a city largely abandoned by official law enforcement since Yanukovych’s overthrow on Feb. 22.

URL:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-25/militias-hunt-kiev-for-looters-from-central-bank-to-bling-palace.html

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Viktor Yanukovych boasted of Ukraine corruption, says Mikheil Saakashvili
Georgia's former president says deposed Ukrainian leader had 'no idea about morality' and was brazen in his abuse of office

By Shaun Walker in Kiev, theguardian.com, 25 Feb. 2014

[....] He recalled one incident in particular, at the 2011 UN general assembly in New York, when he said Yanukovych bragged at length about how his corrupt government worked, in front of Saakashvili and a group of leaders from post-Soviet countries.

"He would talk very loudly about how he had corrupted senior officials, in the supreme court and the constitutional court," Saakashvili said during an interview in the Ukrainian capital, where he is meeting with opposition leaders after Yanukovych's downfall. "He didn't care who he was talking to; the guy did not have any idea about morality."

Saakashvili said Yanukovych was unique among post-Soviet leaders, even the notoriously ruthless and corrupt central Asian dictators. "The others might be cynical but not to the extent of denouncing themselves. I wasn't that surprised he would do these things, but I was surprised how open he was about it." [....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 6:41pm

I just saw a boots-on-the-ground report from Crimea, the demonstrations between pro-revolution Tatars and Russian ethnics, on PBS News Hour. They don't have the videos up yet for today's broadcast, but I recommend it once it is up.

Things were very heated and there was pushing and shoving and some injuries, but overall I thought it was very promising that it stayed to that! Especially since the two groups are not just ethnically different, but religiously, and that the spectre of Russian interference is in the air. I can see this could more easily go totally political than it could go violent right now, especially after hearing some of the views in the crowd. Not that there won't be fistfights in that parliament....

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 7:29pm

I also found the following very heartening as to the country's prospects:

Heartland Of Ukrainian Nationalism, Lviv Speaks Russian, For A Day, To Ease East-West Divide
By Claire Bigg and Halyna Tereshchuk, RFERFL, Feb. 26, 2014

Ater keeping much of the world spellbound for months, Ukraine's Euromaidan revolt shows it can still yield surprises.

In the wake of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, residents in the western city of Lviv -- a bastion of Ukrainian nationalism -- have unexpectedly come out in support of Ukraine's Russian-speakers. Many locals are angry at the newly emboldened parliament for scrapping a Yanukovych-era law that recognizes Russian as an official regional language.

They warn against fuelling tensions in the already bitterly divided country and watch the rise of the ultranationalist Svoboda party -- a key player in the antigovernment protests and the driving force behind the decision to repel the so-called Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law -- with wariness [.....]

I happened to catch the official city flyer on that yesterday on a Twitter feed at the NYT:

https://twitter.com/ARothNYT/status/438413104511078400/photo/1

I was especially interested as the city of Lviv (alt."Lwów", "Lvov", and "Lemberg") is one I endeavored to learn something about long ago, once I learned it was the first city my grandpa ever visited and it was where he saw electric lights for the first time.

Saying that Lviv is the center of Ukrainian nationalism I think is kind of misleading, what is meant by "nationalism" there. Lviv is multi-culti going back nearly 1,000 years. It was one of those crossroads of the world trading cities, the capital of the kingdom of Galicia. Polish poets have written odes to what they call Lwów. It's more like this: they are proud in Lviv as being a part of the crossroads of worlds, as part of the Ukrainian breadbasket of the world...Yes, they are Ukrainian, which is considered being a cultural mixture and also basically formed of many genetic and cultural feeds.

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 8:09pm

Warning for Emma: maybe more tears in your eyes with this link:

To Go to Lvov, 2002 poem by Adam Zagajewski.

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 8:22pm

I don't tear up much over sentimentality. I guess I am just so used to seeing and reading about how awful everything and everybody is that when people actually do good or honorable, even noble things I am surprised to tears -- and fears that they are a vanishing breed.

by EmmaZahn on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 8:41pm

Here is a very long slide show (pdf) by a Ukrainian at Berkeley explaining what happened with some interesting and some gruesome photos.

It starts with background (includes a cheap shot at Yanucovich's grammar and spelling) then at slide 36 he begins a timeline of events since the initial protest on November 21 captioned:

"Spontaneous gathering of people at Maydan (reads “my dun”; Independence Square; the central square in Kiev): a few thousand people, mostly students. Mostly likely, this protest would have died within a few days."

The next slide shows the protesters being attacked by riot police on November 30. That is followed by a spectacular slide, hopefully not photoshopped, of people turning out in support of the protesters on December 1. Then events continue downhill from there. The situation really did devolve rapidly.

The whole thing is fascinating despite being very long and amateurish.

by EmmaZahn on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 7:39pm

Very good and informative.

by Peter Schwartz on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 8:22pm

Rivalries Prolong Power Vacuum in Ukraine
Delay in Forming New Government Risks Ire of Protesters; Currency Plunges Amid Aid Uncertainty, Fears of Devaluation

By Alan Cullison and James Marson, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 25, 2014 7:53 p.m. ET

KIEV, Ukraine—Ukraine's de facto leaders postponed efforts to form a new government Tuesday, as the country's currency plunged and separatist stirrings grew in a southern region traditionally loyal to Russia.

Ukrainian parliamentary speaker and interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said a new government should be in place by Thursday, two days later than the initial target.

The apparent delay reflects jockeying for position among lawmakers and threatens to draw the ire of protesters, who remain camped on Kiev's main square and are accusing the parliamentarians of backroom dealings.

The delay also sows worries of what chaos may grow in the country's power vacuum. While the country has shown scant signs of unrest since President Viktor Yanukovych fled over the weekend, the fringes may be fraying [....]

Since the fighting ended, parliamentarians in Kiev have begun horse-trading for offices, with some eyeing presidential elections set for May 25 [....]

The parliament's delay in forming a government complicates Western efforts to provide a financial-aid package to Ukraine's new leadership [....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/26/2014 - 11:02pm

Militias Hunt Kiev Looters From Central Bank to Bling Palace

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