Comments

1
Damn.
2
A gut-punch. You can't help but imagine such scenes in our streets someday.
3
@2: I can't really imagine that, frankly. we don't have blatant government corruption on a day-to-day level - bribery is not a cost of doing daily business. we really don't have similar political or ethnic divisions. I think American conservatives are utter idiots, but we're not about to take up arms against them. the federal government isn't about to make their paranoid 2nd amendment fantasies come true either.

may Ukraine know peace.
4
Thanks Chris. I really feel like I'm doing a crash course in Ukraine politics, so the summary is really useful.
5
Interview of Stephen Cohen, American scholar of Russian studies, on Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/20/a_…
6
Thank you Chris. I've been following the crisis in Ukraine for months. My wife and I went there for our honeymoon last July.

Even with the corruption and weak economy there are great things about Ukraine. Kiev and Odessa are both beautiful and rich in history. The people are also friendly and easy to talk to. And the beer and food is amazing.

Plus Kiev has the best transit system I have ever seen in the world. For the price of .25 you can ride it from one side of the metropolitan area to the other. And the typical wait time was less than two minutes! The longest we waited on a subway was 7 minutes and that was after 11PM.

I think a Ukraine that moves closer to Europe has a lot of potential.
7
@3, You say, "I think American conservatives are utter idiots, but we're not about to take up arms against them."

Why not? Why shouldn't we? What's the alternative, letting them continue taking us hostage?
8
Those images are art, reminiscent of Goya.
9
I'm not following this that closely, though this is a good report on it. But it's interesting to compare and contrast this major internal unrest with the other one going on in Thailand. Both are ostensibly about corruption, or avoiding corruption, though the core issues seem deeper than that. Both have opposing sides that fall along geographic/demographic boundaries. The Thai army appears to be supporting its unrest by allowing it to happen, but maybe the the Ukrainian army can't be used to suppress the Ukrainian revolt. The Ukrainian revolt is much more violent and heavily influenced by neighboring countries. Indeed, a big part of the disagreement appears to be regarding foreign policy. World leaders are meeting to contain the Ukrainian revolt, but there doesn't seem to be much international action when it comes to Thailand. The Ukrainian revolt pits the country's oligarchs and their president against the people of western and central Ukraine. The Thai conflict seems to be between backers of the democratic government and supporters of the king. It may be that the Ukrainian opposition is much more diverse, with separate agendas, while Thailand's government opposition is generally on the same page.

Both have Stranger contributors reporting from the street. (I don't know if the Seattle Times can say that.)

I think the Thai opposition is going to prevail, at least in the immediate. I'm not so sure about the Ukrainian opposition, though.
10
Lots of news this morning: Ukrainian parliament speaker resigns; parliament votes to dismiss Yanukovych, who has now fled the capital; Tymoshenko freed; new elections set for late May.
11
... o.O
The neonazi's that are hanging up images of Hitler who are a large section of the militant groups in the uprising not worthy a mention? The fact that Ukrainian rabbis are suggesting jews leave the country, not a word?
The fact that gays, lesbians and unionists who tried to take part in the process where beaten up and threatened that "they where next"? None of that?

Why is it that the entirety of Europe and the US is hellbent on taking whatever side is slightly against Russia and white washing it?
I mean yes, there are a lot of great people in the protest but don't ignore the fact that a large group of it are waving neonazi flags, that Svoboda is a large extreme-right party.

It's not this black and white... (like the Venezuela thing. Its just not as simple as it's presented)
12
@11: more on the concerns you raise here.

Please wait...

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