Poor Ukrainians Rally For Russia

Daily Beast ^

[kronos77]

At a rival protest in Kiev this weekend, impoverished workers from eastern Ukraine turned out to show their support for the government and stronger ties with Moscow even as the pro-EU crowd grew ever more jubilant. They were poor. Their clothes looked cheap and worn, their faces tired; their feelings were hurt. A group of workers and miners from Kirovsk, an industrial town in eastern Ukraine, were among thousands of protesters walking on Sunday morning towards the anti-Euro rally in Kiev’s Mariinsky park, to demonstrate their support for Ukraine’s president, Victor Yanukovych, and for friendship with Russia. Two parts of Ukraine spoke out in Kiev’s squares this weekend; both had the right to be heard.

To most of the pro-government protesters, residents of the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, Kiev’s divorce with Moscow would mean unemployment, more poverty and hunger. For the past month, they had felt heartbroken watching “the other Ukraine” on the news, as hundreds of thousands of pro-EU protesters declared that “Ukraine would not be a province of the Russian empire any longer.” The Maidan camp with all its E.U. flags, where U.S. Senator John McCain addressed the crowd this weekend, and where Ukrainian nationalist songs ring out, is “an ideologically hostile place, aiming to cause a schism of Ukraine,” said Aleksander Lukyanenko, an unemployed man and member of the Party of Regions, which led the anti-EU factions.

But just as Lukyanenko and his friends were about to step into the crowded park, a young hipster handed them a flier. It was a copy of a letter from the Maidan, distributed by the opposition to participants in the pro-government rally.

[Timedrifter]

Articles like this assume the reader is ignorant of the facts on the ground I guess. Anybody familiar with Ukraine knows that the eastern sections of Ukraine are wealthier than the mainly agricultural areas west of Kiev. All of the industry is in the east. Per capita incomes are about 40% higher in the east. The east contributes 70% of the taxes to the central government.

One thing the article says is true, the EU pact would mean massive shutdowns of industry since the Ukrainian manufactures could never compete with German, Dutch, and even French industries.

[tlozo]

One thing the ruling Party of Regions achieved by bringing over demonstrators to Kiev was to show to the international observers covering Kiev’s protests how hopelessly poor their supporters were. Lines of hungry people waited to have a plate of buckwheat mixed with pieces of canned meat and a cup of hot tea at the pro-presidential rally. There was no sign of Cossacks in traditional clothes cooking giant balls of tasty soups, no stands with volunteers serving vegetables or slices of traditional smoked pork fat—all that festive atmosphere stayed at the Maidan. Neither were there scientists or academics reading free lectures on economy or political science, nor even any volunteer medical centers.
Red Cross volunteers provided free medicine to both pro-Western and pro-Eastern camps in Kiev this weekend. “I advised some especially sick-looking visitors from eastern Ukraine to quietly walk away from here to the Maidan and have some oranges, have a plate of healthy borsch,” said Sergei Gromada, a Red Cross volunteer working in the “Eastern camp.”
On Saturday night, the contrast between the two camps grew especially significant. At 8:30 p.m. more than 100,000 people were packed into the Maidan, rocking and rolling at a live concert by one on Ukraine’s most popular bands, Okean Elza. Young people rapped in Ukranian, and Okean Elza sang its famous “Get Up!” song it had performed during the Orange Revolution. One block away, in the European Square, the site of pro-president rally earlier that day, only a few policemen and their dogs milled about.

[The_Reader_David]

Do you (or does anyone on FR) know whether the pro-E.U. faction is more heavily Uniate than the Ukrainian population as a whole? I’m curious, though my impression is that it’s mostly urban, probably thoroughly secular, Ukrainians who want to get into the orbit of the Christophobic Brussels nomenklatura.

[1rudeboy]

LOL—images of the unions busing in protestors to some commielib event here in the U.S.

[mac_truck]

But just as Lukyanenko and his friends were about to step into the crowded park, a young hipster handed them a flier. It was a copy of a letter from the Maidan, distributed by the opposition to participants in the pro-government rally. “The Maidan does not stand for NATO, the USA or Europe,” the flier said.

Isn't it kind of hard to believe that when there's a neocon RINO from America in the crowd shaking hands at the same time?

[ETL]

Flashback: 2007

Yushchenko: Russia blocking poisoning probe
By Bonnie Malkin and agencies, September 12, 2007

Mr Yushchenko before and after the poisoning

"Mr Yushchenko, a pro-European politician who wanted to bring his country [The Ukraine] out of Russia's shadow, fell seriously ill on September 6, 2004 as he was competing in presidential elections against a pro-Moscow candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, now prime minister.

After months of tests in an Austrian clinic, it was determined that he had ingested a massive amount of the poison dioxin.

Although he survived, his face was left bloated and pockmarked, and he has had to undergo regular treatment to rid his body of the toxin.

In an interview with Le Figaro he said he believed the dioxin used to disfigure him was made in a Russian lab.

Mr Yushchenko did not directly accuse the Russian government of being behind his poisoning, but he did say he had 'practically put all the pieces together' and the attempt against him 'was not a private action'. ..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1562838/Yushchenko-Russia-blocking-poisoning-probe.html
_____________________________________________________

"Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (born February 23, 1954) is the third and current President of Ukraine". He took office on January 23, 2005. [there is a new pro-Putin president since]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko
_______________________________________________________

(Ukraine) Hunt starts for Yushchenko's poisoner:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/1478922/Hunt-starts-for-Yushchenko%27s-poisoner.html
_______________________________________________________

Putin's Poison?
by Peter Brookes, November 27, 2006
The death of former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, last week from radioactive Polonium-210 poisoning is the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks on the outspoken opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed112706a.cfm

[1rudeboy]

Leading to the question: what is more disconcerting—fat women fainting at Obama rallies, or FReepers fainting at the mention of their hero, Vladimir Putin?

[ETL]

It is sickening, isn’t it. I can’t believe they let this guy remain here.

[mac_truck]

Get lost troll boy.

[ETL]

Are you are KGB Putin groupie like kronos?

[1rudeboy]

I’m not going to tell you to get lost. Your presence here obviates the need for me to read Ria Novosti.

[goldstategop]

The Russian-speaking east is not enamored of the “Euromaidan” movement espoused by western Ukrainians.

In the east and south of Ukraine, there is scarcely a word of Ukrainian spoken.

[goldstategop]

Ukrainians in the west are primarily Catholic - those in the east are Orthodox.

[x_plus_one]

Easy money on USA having a hand in the protests to separate Ukraine from Moscow. Most VIP goal of US foreign policy is to destabilize Russia by any means necessary including arming Chechen and other Islamics. Nabucco vs South Stream Pipelines also compete for same customers eventually.

[ETL]

Obama and Putin are butt buddies. They have the same new world order goals. A weak US and a stronger everyone else.

[Greysard]

the EU pact would mean massive shutdowns of industry since the Ukrainian manufactures could never compete with German, Dutch, and even French industries.

Ukrainian agriculture will be also unable to compete with far more advanced farmers of Poland, Hungary, and other neighboring countries. This could be corrected by investments, but who is going to invest in conditions of overproduction?

I believe those in Ukraine who advocate for EU are simply planning to cross the border to wealthier countries before the ink has dried on the agreement. But will they be allowed to do that?

I can understand, though, that people are desperate for a change, so they are grasping at straws. However neither they, nor their country, are needed in EU. This is why the Ukrainian government is considering ties with Russia - they are better matched, and they have mutual interests.

[Viennacon]

Likely true. Ukrainian industry does very well because of its relative isolation from competition.

[1rudeboy]

I can understand, though, that people are desperate for a change, so they are grasping at straws. However neither they, nor their country, are needed in EU. This is why the Ukrainian government is considering ties with Russia - they are better matched, and they have mutual interests.

In other words, if only these people "grasping at straws" could be made to understand that Vladi knows what's best for them . . . to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs, right?

[1rudeboy]

If this thread goes much farther, you and I will have to check our meals for polonium-210.