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 ...
Again, demonstrating that you've read little.
I prefer to think of it as self-preservation.
East Germany (former), Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia - all the former Iron Curtain states have suffered enough from the communist bastards for decades.
I just think it’s time for them to say “enough” and make sure that that ideology - and those who preach it - can never be a threat to them again.
Once is enough.
Hahah! Love it.
That’s about right...
Can’t solve the problems of the world, friend.
But you can protect your own society and your own civilization from a proven, known enemy - that, by the way, held your people in terror and slavery for DECADES after WWII.
East Germany (former), Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia, - all the former Iron Curtain states and satellites - are entitled to a little self-preservation from communism.
As far as the Hutsis and tutsis - whatever - those hatreds go back generations. Probably started over a stolen water buffalo or a woman a thousand years ago, who knows.
Thanks! Regarding the original post, what is interesting is that the Lenin statue in Kiev has been up all 22 years of the independence of Ukraine, including the years when Timoshenko was Prime Minister and Kuchma and Yushchenko were Presidents, all being political foes of Yanukovich. So logically, what are the people protesting against in destroying the statue? Yanukovich didn’t put it up, but all the pro-EU people left it up when THEY had the power. (I agree that there be no statues to Lenin, but it has nothing to do for or against Yanukovich.)
Personally I think It's good UKR gov rejected EU deal, If they accepted it, Russia would block their export, energy supply and EU would do nothing about it, in 2-3 years they would be on their knees asking Putin for forgiveness.
Government rejected a deal with EU, people make it clear (and east/west division is not that relevant in this case) they don't want integration with Russia, soon both sides will hopefully calm down and the country will get back to be politically in between of Russia and “west”, basically what they have been doing since +20 years.
What's most important for them is to sort out their own internal mess, all Central/Eastern European ex-commie countries have made major mistakes, however Ukraine made more of them than anyone else. Yanukovych is a criminal, Tymoshenko guys are no better, then there's some semi-fascist guy... only Klitschko looks promising, however it will take several years before he becomes a major political player. Once they form a normal government and build a strong economy, they will not need to join any blocks.
“At the time of the Baptism of Rus’, their was NO Ukraine”
“The “Ukrainian” identity was promoted by”
Could you please remind us where were United States of A. and American identity back then ? Oh wait :)))
Don't you guys find it strange that your religion dictates you what you should think about international relations ? If RCC was expecting from me a blind support for let's say Italian or Mexican authorities, I would leave it immediately.
“...so they have to resort to street violence....”
Sometimes, that is the ONLY option left. Especially when the system has been rigged against you so that you can’t win.
People want their freedom and their liberty, and they will do whatever is necessary - by any means necessary - to get it. May take decades, may take a hundred years. But eventually, they will do what they have to do to get it.
That’s ages old, friend... most folks ultimately, just want to be left the hell alone to live out their lives. And there’s always a group of people determined to impose THEIR will and view of life on others.
Khrushchev was an ethnic Russian, born to Russian parents in a Russian village near the border with Ukraine.
Great, so you do agree then that there are Russians living in Ukraine, and no one is Ukrainian just because they live in the Ukraine? That was my point.
Khrushchev lived in Ukraine for a number of years but I don’t think the Ukrainians would want to claim him as one of their own. As for ethnic Russians who have lived all their lives in Ukraine, that is a trickier question and I don’t have an answer. Maybe it would depend on whether they feel a genuine loyalty to Ukraine or whether they are just hoping for the day when the Russian Empire is reassembled.
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