#ukrainian protesters

[pop-up-x]

Bureau A & Burø - Maiden Survey, 2015

[newstfionline]

Naming of Officials in Ukraine Reflects Homage to Power of the Street

By David M. Herszenhorn, NY Times, Feb. 27, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine--Oleh Musiy, a prominent doctor who last week coordinated the improvised field hospitals that treated wounded and dying protesters during clashes with the police, is now the health minister of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million people.

Dmytro Bulatov, the leader of a group that organized caravans of cars to carry out protests outside government buildings and the homes of some senior officials, is now minister of youth and sports. Yevhen Nyschuk, an actor who became more famous as the M.C. on stage in Independence Square, a sort of Ryan Seacrest of the Ukrainian civic uprising, is culture minister.

And Tetyana Chornovol, a journalist, activist and crusader against public graft, who first won renown in 2012 when she scaled the walls of President Viktor F. Yanukovych’s residential compound and spent several hours peeking at the trappings of luxury before being arrested, will be the head of a new federal anticorruption bureau, which does not even exist yet.

As the Ukrainian Parliament approved an interim government on Thursday, the inclusion of these popular figures from the protest movement reflected a concerted effort to pay tribute to the role of the street in dislodging Mr. Yanukovych from power and to bolster the legitimacy of more established officials in the cabinet who are the object of deep public suspicion and mistrust.

More seasoned public officials acknowledged that some of the choices were unorthodox, but said that the protest leaders had earned the right to a strong voice in the new government.

“First of all, we should give the benefit of the doubt,” said Hryhoriy Nemyria, a Parliament member and former deputy prime minister. “Also, we’re in extraordinary circumstances,” he said. “Business as usual is not something we can expect.”

For many participants in the three-month uprising, however, the provisional leadership in Parliament and the interim government named on Thursday include far too much business as usual: veteran politicians like the acting prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, who have served in government for many years.

A crowd of several hundred demonstrators gathered outside Parliament on Thursday to make that point, many carrying flags of the nationalist party Svoboda. Someone even parked an armored car on the plaza, where it remained for much of the day.

While an early presidential election has been set for May 25, the demonstrators said they also wanted early parliamentary elections, giving them an opportunity to sweep the legislative branch clean as well.

In a gesture of deference and respect to the street protesters, officials announced the choices for the new cabinet on stage in Independence Square on Wednesday night before a crowd of tens of thousands. The reaction was mixed, with cheers for the people most closely associated with the protest movement, and jeers for others.

While Mr. Yatsenyuk is viewed warily by people on the street, especially because he is a top official in Fatherland, the party of a former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, his appointment has been greeted enthusiastically by Western officials, who regard him as experienced, technically competent and someone they can work with as a partner.

On Thursday, he received a call from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who assured him “the United States will offer its full support” as Ukraine undertakes needed reforms, the White House said.

Mr. Yatsenyuk is a former foreign minister, economics minister and acting head of the central bank. In a speech to Parliament on Thursday just before he was officially appointed acting prime minister, he said he would revive the sweeping political and free-trade agreements with the European Union that Mr. Yanukovych scrapped in November, setting off the unrest.

With Ukraine facing an economic crisis, Mr. Yatsenyuk said the country should quickly take steps to meet the requirements of the International Monetary Fund for a large economic rescue package, which will include some painful austerity measures and other changes.

In working toward fixing the economy, Mr. Yatsenyuk will have the help of Stepan Kubiv, whom Parliament appointed this week as chairman of the Ukrainian National Bank.

Mr. Kubiv has some experience for the central banker post: he is a former chief executive of KredoBank, a Ukrainian retail bank. But he became far better known for his work during the protests as commandant of the occupied Trade Unions Building, which had served as an unofficial headquarters of the opposition right on Independence Square

The building operated around the clock, with a kitchen that helped feed protesters, as well as offices where politicians would meet opposition leaders, and even a makeshift press center. The building was set on fire and gutted last week during the worst clashes between demonstrators and the authorities.

Ms. Chornovol--the activist and journalist whose infiltration of Mr. Yanukovych’s residence two years ago gave Ukrainians a first peek at the compound that on Saturday was open to the public--has crusaded against corruption. In December, she made international headlines after she was beaten savagely by a group of men who ran her car off the road, apparently in reprisal for her efforts to expose the ill-gotten riches of officials.

In an interview in the Parliament building on Thursday, Ms. Chornovol acknowledged that she had no government experience and that she would face challenges in running an anticorruption bureau that must be developed from scratch.

Perhaps the most unorthodox figure in the new government, however, is Mr. Bulatov, who will be minister of youth and sports, but who rose to fame as the leader of AutoMaidan, a group that carried out protests using caravans of vehicles.

Mr. Bulatov, 35, who owns a garage in Kiev, was kidnapped last month, apparently by men connected to the authorities, and abused. He said that he was held in a dark room and beaten, and that his hands had been nailed to a door. An ear and a cheek were cut with a knife.

[thomdesign]

I don't get this Ukraine thing? People dying in the streets? Go home maybe? Get away from the fighting? Don't fight cops who have guns? Get out of the street? Your life is valuable and shouldn't be wasted over nothing?

[pixoscope]

People taking part in the protests in Ukraine, are using different and interesting costumes and accessories.

View Post

[newstfionline]

Ukrainian Protesters Find Powerful Ally in Orthodox Church

By David M. Herszenhorn, NY Times, December 4, 2013

KIEV, Ukraine--After helmeted riot police stormed Independence Square here early Saturday, spraying tear gas, throwing stun grenades and swinging truncheons, dozens of young protesters ran, terrified, scattering up the streets. It was after 4:30 a.m., the air cold, the sky black. As they got their bearings, the half-lit bell tower of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery beckoned.

Inside, the fleeing demonstrators found more than warmth and safety. They had arrived in a bastion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, where they were welcomed not only on a humanitarian basis but because the church, driven by its own historical tensions with Moscow, is actively supporting their uprising. It strongly favors European integration to enable Ukraine to break free from Russia's grip, and has joined the calls to oust the Ukrainian government.

From the conversion of Princess Olga, the regent of Kievan Rus, in the 10th century to the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Orthodox Church has generally flourished by acting in close concert with political powers. Its efforts to confront the authorities have tended to go badly, as when Philip II, the metropolitan of Moscow, protested political massacres in 1568 by refusing to bless Ivan the Terrible. He was jailed, chained around the neck and strangled to death.

But in recent days, the Kyivan Patriarchate, which controls St. Michael's, has emerged as a powerful ally of the thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich and the revival of the far-reaching political and trade accords with the European Union that he has refused to sign. Some priests have even led prayer sessions in Independence Square, which protesters have occupied.

"Our church is together with the people," the Kyivan Patriarchate's 84-year-old leader, Filaret, said in an interview. "It supports Ukraine entering the European Union. We pray to God that he will help us enter the European Union in order to keep our statehood, to keep peace and to improve the life of the people."

On Wednesday, the demonstrators who have laid siege to public buildings in the rattled Ukrainian capital expanded their protest, blockading the central bank, setting up tents and lighting bonfires on the sidewalk outside.

Protest leaders had vowed to surround additional government buildings after the Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday defeated a measure calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his government. But as of Wednesday morning, their goal of blockading the presidential administration building had not been accomplished.

While the situation remained fluid, the protesters could count on the support of the church and of Filaret, whose oppositional posture provides a striking contrast with Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church, a close and increasingly important political ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.

As Russia sought in recent months to persuade Ukraine and other former Soviet republics to turn away from the agreements with Europe, Kirill lent his own spiritual muscle to the effort--making a personal visit, for instance, to Moldova, where he denounced Europe and the West as places where "morals are simply disappearing."

Filaret is neither as powerful nor as influential as Kirill. The Kyivan Patriarchate is one of three governing entities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, along with the Moscow Patriarchate, led by Metropolitan Volodymyr, who reports to Kirill, and the smaller Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

There are also many other faiths in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which dominates the western part of the country. Experts said religious pluralism made religious leaders less likely to echo the views of the government.

"Ukraine has the most pluralistic religious market in Eastern Europe," said Viktor Yelensky, president of the Ukrainian Association for Religious Liberty. "Because none of the churches unite more than a quarter of citizens, there is a balance of forces."

"In Russia," Mr. Yelensky added, "there is a main church, which cooperates with the authorities, while in Ukraine the church is more dependent on the people."

A number of religious leaders in Ukraine, including Volodymyr, have issued statements condemning violence and urging a peaceful resolution to the unrest here. The Kyivan Patriarchate, though, has gone far beyond such statements, providing direct and active support to the uprising. The sheltering of dozens of beaten demonstrators in its monastery is now regarded among protest organizers as a major turning point.

"I don't know who made the decision to go to St. Michael's, but it was the right thing, in part because it rested on the whole concept of sanctuary," said a Western diplomat observing the events here, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with diplomatic protocol. "The monks closed the gates, and that was the thing that gave them the time to reconstitute."

Church officials gave the demonstrators tea and blankets, and many slept on carpets on the floor of the main cathedral as a monk chanted prayers through the night. Participants have described it as an almost mystical experience, recalling events some 800 years ago when people sought refuge from invading Tatars and Mongols in the original monastery, long since destroyed.

Russia's effort to derail the accords with Europe has been viewed by many here as an attempt to keep Ukraine stuck in Moscow's orbit and to prevent improvements in public services, including the rule of law, and a general increase in quality of life.

Older Ukrainians have bad memories of Soviet times, as does the Orthodox Church here.

In the 1930s, for instance, Soviet officials demolished St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, which was originally built in the 1100s and destroyed and rebuilt several times over the ensuing centuries. The complex was most recently rebuilt, modeled on an earlier design, in the 1990s.