Thursday, January 13, 2005

Another demonstration

My wife just came in and told me that there was a pro-Yanukovych rally at the Arsenalna Metro station close to Marinsky Palace and the Verhkovna Rada. When she passed by the first time, there were about 50 people. Coming back, she noticed that the crowd was then about 100. She said someone had a megaphone and was yelling, "We need to come here and we need to show that we are real people who chose Yanukovych. We need to protect our choice." The people who were protesting there were carrying flags of Yanukovych and other flags that were red with the face of Jesus on them. She didn't know what that meant. Maybe they are making a point about their own suffering by analogy?

My wife said to me, "What it really looks like is the bouncing around of a chicken whose head has been cut off."

Maybe Yanukovych can take heart with such protests as these.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The red flags with Jesus on them - were they sim. to the one in the article about the right wing group - Bratsvo - Dmytro Korchynsky ran for UA president. http://www.elections.ukrinform.com.ua/candidate.php?c=11&lang=en Kyiv post had a clearer photo of the flag in an opinion piece on the group but I could not ge through - http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/qanda/21139/print/
Bratsvo took reposnsibility for splashing George Soros with water and mayonnaise on a trip to Ukraine http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/2392_0_2_0_C/

The following was written by Taras Kuzio
"As with the Russian Liberal Democratic Party, the Ukrainian authorities control four extreme nationalist groups: the Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (ONU), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in Ukraine (OUNvU), Rukh for Unity (RukhzY), and Bratstvo (Brotherhood). Nationalist groups, such as KUN (Congress Ukrainian Nationalists) in Our Ukraine and another wing of UNA, which adds the abbreviation UNSO (Ukrainian Peoples Self-Defense Forces) in the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, are bona fide members of the opposition.

The four pro-Kuchma nationalist groups (UNA, OUNvU, RukhzY, Bratstvo) are believed to be funded by either the SDPUo or the Presidential Administration. They certainly have close ties to the president's allies. Dmytro Korchynsky, head of Bratstvo, is a commentator on Medvedchuk's 1+1 television channel. Andriy Chornovil, head of OUNvU, is a member of the SDPUo Social Justice faction in the Lviv oblast council, and the Lviv faction is headed by Serhiy Medvedchuk, Viktor's brother." http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=3001&article_id=2368166