Ukraine TV starts showing protests [only scant or negative coverage of Yushchenko until now]

Recent letter from Kyiv:

Da, u nas seychas slozhnoe vremya, vsya strana na ulitse. No, slava bogu, net vooruzhennykh stolknoveniy, politicheskaya zabastovka idet v mirnom rusle. No Yanukovich i, glavnoe nash garant Kuchma, nakalyayut obstanovku. Odin is vysokopostavlennykh militseyskikh chinov, zam. ministra MVS, skazal, chto ulitsa vydokhnetsya skoro i vse zarikhnet. No nakal usilivaetsya. Uzhe pochti vse goroda vystupili v podderzhku Yushchenko i mestnye deputaty vystupili v podderzhku Yushchenko i otkazyvayutsya vypolnyat' rasporyazheniya predstaviteley Yanukovicha i Kuchmy. No nyneshnie praviteli i ne dumayut podavat' v otstavku. Uzhas. Starayutsya natravit' lyudey drug na druga, chtoby sprovotsirovat' vooruzheniy konflikt v vvesti chrezvychaynoe polozhenie. S Donetska priezhayut p'yanye lyudi i krichat, chto oni za Yanukovicha. No Yushchenko i ego komanda ne dopuskayut takoy variant razvitiya sobytiy. Ya uverena, chto narod pobedit, nas mnogo, milliony. Skushay kusochek indeyki i za menya.
"Yes, we are in complicated times, the entire nation is out on the street. But, thank God, there are no armed confrontations, the political strike remains at a peaceful level. But Yanukovich and our chief guarrantor Kuchma heat up the situation. One of the high-ranking police bureaucrats, the acting director of the MVS, said that the street will get tired and everything will calm down. But the heating up (of the situation) increases. Almost all cities have cast their lot with Yushchenko and the local parliament deputies have spoken their support and are refusing to carry out the orders of Yanukovich's and Kuchma's representatives. But the present-time leaders aren't even thinking of resigning. Terrible. They are trying to make people fight each other, in order to provoke an armed conflict and declare a state of emergency. From Donesk arrive drunken people who scream that they are for Yanukovich. But Yushchenko and his team won't allow this to happen. I am sure that the people will win, we are many, millions. "

Peter, the below is what has me scared.

There is not much chance of a mob standing around doing nothing, to not have a few hot-heads, that can set them into a full riot.

Thank you for posting the letter.

"Almost
all cities have cast their lot with Yushchenko and the local
parliament deputies have spoken their support and are
refusing to carry out the orders of Yanukovich's and Kuchma's
representatives. But the present-time leaders aren't even
thinking of resigning. Terrible. They are trying to make people
fight each other, in order to provoke an armed conflict and
declare a state of emergency. From Donesk arrive drunken
people who scream that they are for Yanukovich. But
Yushchenko and his team won't allow this to happen. I am sure
that the people will win, we are many, millions. "

Donetsk is the oblast' (like a state) where Yanukovich was governor for several years before moving to Kyiv (and building a HUGE estate not far from that big statue on the Dnepr river). The 'Donbas' is the coal heartland of the Ukraine, with mines near Lugansk going down 1800 meters, and the population is probably 90% ethnic Russian. This is Yanukovich country. For about ten years miners from Donetsk and Lugansk have been coming to Kyiv to protest non-payment of wages, lack of electricity and water. Kyiv considers itself MUCH more cultivated and advanced than these miners. They usually sic the cops on 'em, kill a few, and send the rest home bruised and bloody.

I doubt they are 'rent a mobs'. They probably see their homeboy in trouble and want to help. That the homeboy has somehow accumulated millions of dollars during his governorship (official salary $1000 a month) doesn't interest them.

The friend who wrote this letter is the director of a firm, and she refers to one of her investors from Donetsk as "tot shakhtyor" ('that miner'), even though he never worked in a mine in his life. BTW: She did six months in a SIZO (protective custody) for diverting money to a losing side's political campaign, so her perspective may be a bit colored. As in calling them 'drunken'.

The latest:

Seychas my tak prikovany k telekam, esli ne na ploshchadi, kak nikogda. Na vsekh kanalakh zhurnalisty proveli zabastovki, chtoby im dali vozmozhnost' realizovat' svoi professional'nye vozmozhnosti i ne rabotat', kak prostye diktory, chitat' o tom, chto napisali v administratsii prezidenta, t.e. po 'temnikam'. I dobilis' svoego. Teper' mozhno smotret' kanaly i informatsiya skol'ko raznaya, chto neuspevaesh' prereklyuchat' kanaly, potomu chto informatsii mnogo i ona nasyshchennaya. Seychas k nam priexali kak posredniki Solan i Kvasnetskiy. Ne uverena, chto dostignut kakogo-to rezul'tata, slyshkom vlast' daleko zashla.
"Now we are riveted to our television sets, if not out in the square, as never before. On all the TV stations the journalists cover the strikes, in order to finally realize their possiblities of their profession and not simply work as simple announcers, reading whatever the president's administration has written. And they are getting theirs. Now one can watch the stations and there is so much information and it's all so different that you can't even change the channel because it's so saturated. The mediators Solan and Kvasnetskiy arrived. I'm not sure that they'll reach some kind of result, the government has gone too far."
U menya, v sem'e, kak v strane, obrazovalas' oppozitsiya, kaolitsiya. Ya sobirayus' na nedele uezzhat', khochu poexat' v kakoy-nibud' sanatoriy do Novogo goda pobyt' vne doma i dat' im vozmozhnost' pobyt' bez menya. A mozhet byt', spokoyno tam umru.
"In my family, just as in my country, there have formed an opposition and a coalition. I'm getting ready to leave in a week, I want to go to some sort of sanitorium and stay there until the New Year, and give them some time here without me. Perhaps I'll just die there in peace."

It's no fun to live in interesting times.

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