Protesters in Ukraine topple Lenin’s statue in Kiev
11 Dec 2013 5:19 AM IST
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!’ read a poster stuck on the plinth where the red granite statue of Lenin had stood. People hacked off chunks of the prostrate — and now headless - leader of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution to take home as souvenirs.
Cheered by the crowd, a woman planted an EU flag on the pedestal where the 3-1/2 metre (11 feet, 6 inch)-high statue had stood since 1946.
Opposition leaders denied any link to its removal, clearly concerned that such an act could harm their cause. The spokesman of Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov called the felling of the statue ‘barbarism’, Interfax news agency reported.
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.
The demonstrators have erected blockades to defend the central Independence Square - now transformed into a tent village, sustained by donations of food and clothing - from any police attempt to retake it. They are occupying key public buildings and on Sunday erected blockades and tents on roads in the government district.
‘This is a decisive moment when all Ukrainians have gathered here because they don’t want to live in a country where corruption rules and where there is no justice,’ said Vitaly Klitschko, a reigning world heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the opposition Udar (Punch) party.
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.
Oligarchs a hidden threat for Ukraine govt
KIEV: Ukraine’s powerful oligarchs have been keeping quiet in public during the pro-EU rallies rocking the country but they could pose as great a danger to the future of President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime as the protesters themselves.
The demonstrations have coincided with an apparently bitter power struggle inside Yanukovych’s inner circle between older tycoons traditionally loyal to his Regions Party and a group of younger businessmen known as the ‘Family’.
And it is this traditional oligarch group - embittered by the rise of the ‘Family’ - who may be breaking ranks with Yanukovych over the protests. While these ‘old’ oligarchs have refrained from publicly backing the protests, it has escaped the notice of few in Ukraine that their television channels have given full and relatively balanced coverage of the demonstrations.
The Inter channel, co-owned by chemicals tycoon Dmytro Firtash, as well as the Ukraina channel of Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man and the owner of the hugely successful Shakhtar Donetsk football side, have both given substantial airtime to Yanukovych’s opponents.
‘All channels that belong to the ‘old’ oligarchs more or less had a full and objective coverage of events,’ said media commentator Natalia Ligacheva. ‘This leads one to suppose that some oligarchs could support changes in the country,’ she added.
In another sign of increasing tensions within Yanukovych’s inner circle, the co-owner of Inter, presidential chief of staff and key Firtash ally Sergiy Lyovochkin, even resigned after a police crackdown on the demonstrations on 30 November. But the resignation was not accepted. The Inter channel has also made a clear effort to promote world boxing champion turned politician and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko, repeatedly showing his sporting triumphs along with his political activity on the streets.
Unlike in Russia, where the political power of oligarchs was emasculated by the prosecution of its former richest man and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, tycoons still wield huge power in Ukraine. Another influential businessman, pipeline magnate Viktor Pinchuk, has also rejected stifling the voices of staff at his media holding, including the ICTV, STB and Novyi TV channels. Ukraine’s second president Leonid Kuchma - an influential figure who is Pinchuk’s father-in-law - last week co-authored a declaration along with two other ex-heads of state supporting the protests.
‘This gesture could be interpreted as a warning or a challenge from the old oligarchs,’ said political analyst Taras Berezovets, director of Communications Group Berta. The continued power of Ukraine’s oligarchs stems from the checks and balance system created by Kuchma in his 1994-2005 presidency, which was sustained up to Yanukovych’s rise to power in 2010.
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!’ read a poster stuck on the plinth where the red granite statue of Lenin had stood. People hacked off chunks of the prostrate — and now headless - leader of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution to take home as souvenirs.
Cheered by the crowd, a woman planted an EU flag on the pedestal where the 3-1/2 metre (11 feet, 6 inch)-high statue had stood since 1946.
Opposition leaders denied any link to its removal, clearly concerned that such an act could harm their cause. The spokesman of Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov called the felling of the statue ‘barbarism’, Interfax news agency reported.
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.
The demonstrators have erected blockades to defend the central Independence Square - now transformed into a tent village, sustained by donations of food and clothing - from any police attempt to retake it. They are occupying key public buildings and on Sunday erected blockades and tents on roads in the government district.
‘This is a decisive moment when all Ukrainians have gathered here because they don’t want to live in a country where corruption rules and where there is no justice,’ said Vitaly Klitschko, a reigning world heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the opposition Udar (Punch) party.
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.
Oligarchs a hidden threat for Ukraine govt
KIEV: Ukraine’s powerful oligarchs have been keeping quiet in public during the pro-EU rallies rocking the country but they could pose as great a danger to the future of President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime as the protesters themselves.
The demonstrations have coincided with an apparently bitter power struggle inside Yanukovych’s inner circle between older tycoons traditionally loyal to his Regions Party and a group of younger businessmen known as the ‘Family’.
And it is this traditional oligarch group - embittered by the rise of the ‘Family’ - who may be breaking ranks with Yanukovych over the protests. While these ‘old’ oligarchs have refrained from publicly backing the protests, it has escaped the notice of few in Ukraine that their television channels have given full and relatively balanced coverage of the demonstrations.
The Inter channel, co-owned by chemicals tycoon Dmytro Firtash, as well as the Ukraina channel of Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man and the owner of the hugely successful Shakhtar Donetsk football side, have both given substantial airtime to Yanukovych’s opponents.
‘All channels that belong to the ‘old’ oligarchs more or less had a full and objective coverage of events,’ said media commentator Natalia Ligacheva. ‘This leads one to suppose that some oligarchs could support changes in the country,’ she added.
In another sign of increasing tensions within Yanukovych’s inner circle, the co-owner of Inter, presidential chief of staff and key Firtash ally Sergiy Lyovochkin, even resigned after a police crackdown on the demonstrations on 30 November. But the resignation was not accepted. The Inter channel has also made a clear effort to promote world boxing champion turned politician and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko, repeatedly showing his sporting triumphs along with his political activity on the streets.
Unlike in Russia, where the political power of oligarchs was emasculated by the prosecution of its former richest man and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, tycoons still wield huge power in Ukraine. Another influential businessman, pipeline magnate Viktor Pinchuk, has also rejected stifling the voices of staff at his media holding, including the ICTV, STB and Novyi TV channels. Ukraine’s second president Leonid Kuchma - an influential figure who is Pinchuk’s father-in-law - last week co-authored a declaration along with two other ex-heads of state supporting the protests.
‘This gesture could be interpreted as a warning or a challenge from the old oligarchs,’ said political analyst Taras Berezovets, director of Communications Group Berta. The continued power of Ukraine’s oligarchs stems from the checks and balance system created by Kuchma in his 1994-2005 presidency, which was sustained up to Yanukovych’s rise to power in 2010.
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