Beautiful sight.
Posted on 12/08/2013 11:50:45 AM PST by 1rudeboy
Anti-government protesters toppled a statue of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine's capital and attacked it with hammers on Sunday in a symbolic challenge to President Viktor Yanukovich and his plans for closer ties with Russia.
The gesture rejecting Moscow's historic influence over Ukraine came after opposition leaders told hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on Kiev's Independence Square to keep up pressure on Yanukovich to sack his government.
The protesters are furious that the government decided last month to ditch a landmark pact with the European Union in favour of closer economic cooperation with Moscow, Ukraine's Soviet-era overlord.
Yanukovich's sudden tack towards Russia has provoked the biggest street protests since the 2004-5 Orange Revolution, when people power forced a re-run of a fraud-tainted election and thwarted his first run for the presidency.
"Yanukovich, you are next!" chanted protesters as they took turns to hack at the prostrate - and now headless - red granite statue of Lenin, leader of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
Cheered by the crowd, a young woman planted an EU flag on the pedestal where the 3-1/2 metre high statue had stood since 1946. Opposition leaders denied any link to its removal.
The authorities and protesters have confronted each other for weeks, raising fears for political and economic stability in the former Soviet republic of 46 million people.
"This is a decisive moment when all Ukrainians have gathered here because they do not want to live in a country where corruption rules and where there is no justice," said Vitaly Klitschko, a world heavyweight boxing champion-turned-politician.
Ukraine's opposition accuses Yanukovich, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, of preparing to take the country into a Moscow-led customs union, which they see as an attempt to recreate the Soviet Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Some irony there, yes. But relativism of your sort? No.
(Name of a movie about the end of East Germany.)
One of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.
Beautiful sight.
Yep.
For a more serious take on life in a totalitarian state, The Lives of Others is highly recommended. Maybe all Americans need to see it to know what our future holds...especially if Obama is followed by another Democrat President.
I saw that one too. It’s a sobering film.
That should have been “a very funny movie,” of course.
So the Lithuanian workers erected it so that it was pointing at the city prison.
The man with the sledgehammer I say, “Get a couple whacks in for me...We’re right behind you.”
They need to track them all down and remove them from their society - and outlaw the communist party like the Polish did.
Find the cockroaches, and eliminate them, so they’ll never be a threat again.
bump
“Find the cockroaches, and eliminate them, so they’ll never be a threat again.”
So...the answer is really what I preach...EINSATZGRUPPEN?
I thought so.
Maybe “Lenin shoots a basket” was inspired by the giant mural at the University of Notre Dame of Jesus signalling a touchdown.
Some irony there, yes. But relativism of your sort? No.
I can’t see the positive in these protesters desiring to join the EU.
Right, but you claimed that the EU is “worse” than Russia. Basically indicating that you don’t follow foreign politics.
Can the protesters have their own local reasons to want to join the EU that we with our pariochal outlook are incapable of understanding?
I’ll give you one: a citizen of an EU country can live and work in any other EU country. D’UH!
Yes, that is one reason. The other (obvious, I would think—until FReepers fell in love with Vladi), is that these countries are weary of living under the Russian boot, and are trying to attach themselves to the West.
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