The economy is in a worse shape than during WW II; the Oranges wrecked the economy and must go.
Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych said this at an antigovernment rally at Maidan last Friday.
While the first claim blows things out of proportion, there is some merit to the second claim. Whatever the merit, I wouldn’t trust Yanukovych to fix the cheap labor/commodity-cursed McDonbas economy that he had built with his mentor Kuchma.
A distinguished ProFFessor of Kuchamanomics, Yanukovych would be the last person to cure the economy that Yushchenko and Tymoshenko left without reform as they fought their turf wars.
Cautious and curious. That’s how I would describe Yanukovych supporters, be they students or seniors. Thousands of them travelled to Kyiv by bus or train as political tourists from eastern Ukraine, on a daily allowance of $10-20, in a throwback to spring 2007 pro-Yanukovych protests.
Some things have changed, though. In spring 2007, the Party of Regions travel agency educated its masses on how stabilnist (stability) brings dobrobut (prosperity), and how early elections ruin both.
Today, Yanukovych argues quite the opposite: that the only way to achieve stabilnist and dobrobut is to hold early parliamentary and presidential elections.
He gave the government until April 14 to work out an anticrisis strategy, or face stronger protests.
Approaching Maidan...
"Government, you're responsible for the crisis!"
Occasional Ukrainian banners spotted: an “I, too, am Ukraine” innovation at otherwise pro-Russian Party of Regions rallies 
“Yulya, get out! We're all in the opposition!”
Note: Ironically, “Мы все в опозиции” (“We're all in the opposition!”) sounds rather uncommon in Russian, evoking cliches like “Мы все в жопе/дерьме!” (“We're all screwed!”)
"Lyubi druzi (cronies) must go!"
Yanuk likes 'em young and old
Sign reads “Severodonetsk,” the city where the Party of Regions held a separatist convention in late 2004, amid the Orange Revolution.
Orthodox ladies, officers and gentlemen
Nice rally outfit!
Berezivsky rayon, Odesa oblast
"Glory to the Party of Regions! Glory to the people of Ukraine!"
A family reunion...
Speaker, addressing Tmoshenko: "You're merely the mother-in-law of an Englishman, and not the Queen of England. And you should behave like you live in Ukraine, instead of flying around somewhere in the Europes and God knows where. Who would have believed that the price of gas would rise tenfold. When Viktor Fyodorovich Yanukovich* ran the government, we almost got it for free. And what do we have now?
[*Name and patronymic transliterated from Russian]
And I see your true colors shining through...
5 comments:
1) It doesn't look like an economic crisis - look at all the cars and buildings.
2) The participants don't seem too happy, like in the old days, when they paid people to stage rallies of one sort or another, complete with sovok-era "music"
3) Tymonatrix is not the only one to point this out -
The Party of Regions owns everything. That's right - a "political party", the Party of Regions, directly or indirectly through its oligarchs, are the ones that own virtually, almost, everything.
They are the ones, in their "privately owned beeznisses", who have laid people off, or fired them, while the government-owned enterprises, according to Tymonatrix, has kept people employed.
And - as Tymonatrix and others point out - what did the Party of Roosha do for all those years that they were in power, other than siphon funds off to offshore accounts?
No infrastructure improvement, no re-investment in Ukraine, no upgrades, just plain theft and corruption.
Of course, it wasn't limited to the Party of Roosha.....
But the bottom line is that the Party of Roosha is hard-pressed to say that everything is the government's fault (meaning, of course, in the European Parliamentary sense, the government of Yulia Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister), when, in fact, they've been in control far longer than the latest one year that Tymonatrix's govt has been in power.
Even Paul Manafort, the Washington, DC public relations snake hired by the Party of Roosha, can't lie their way out of this one.
These people don’t own those cars and buildings.
These people had no reason to be very happy. Their only happiness came from the rare opportunity to visit the capital of Ukraine on a warm sunny spring day.
Back at home, in eastern Ukraine, the Party of Regions makes sure they don’t earn enough money to travel on their own.
In western Ukraine, BYuT and NUNS have been practicing the same religion, making sure that Ukrainians travel across Europe and Russia as labor migrants only. (Well, BYuT and NUNS have already paid the price in Ternopil oblast.)
In the Soviet days, nobody paid people to attend May 1 or November 7 rallies. Attendance was obligatory at many organizations. Besides, until the late ‘80s, ordinary Soviet people genuinely celebrated these holidays.
During the Orange Revolution, many people traveled to Kyiv using their own means. Many Orange Kyivites fed them and housed them in their apartments free of charge. It was after the Orange Revolution and its subsequent demise that money became the be all and end all of Maidan rallies.
Most eastern Ukrainians would be surprised to hear that Yanukovych and the Party of Regions have hired American spin doctors. Likewise, most Tymoshenko supporters don’t have a clue about her American spin doctors, such as Kenneth Murphy.
In March 2009, this man attended high-level French-Ukrainian talks, neither being a member of the Ukrainian government nor a citizen of Ukraine.
Asked about Murphy, Vice Premier Hryhoriy Nemyrya replied matter-of-factly. A former chairman of the Soros Foundation in Ukraine and, currently, Tymoshenko’s righthand foreign policy man, Nemyrya said the man works for free.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” as the saying goes.
All those Mercedes sitting around, and people aren't happy? What about the "entrepreunerial class" which assorted "guests" elevate to sainthood on assorted forums and blogs in Ukraine?
How could people possibly not be happy about Ukraine's vaunted "on-trap-manure-ial" class?
Seriously, what does it say about Ukrainian media, when people in Eastern Ukraine don't know about Paul Manafort and the US spin doctors of the Party of Regions?
Much has been written about it, including, for example, articles in Ukrainian Pravda.
Heck, even Konovaluk, from the Party of Regions, cited Ukrainian Pravda on the most recent Savik Shuster show!
Why are people so uninformed in Ukraine?
PS Kenneth Murphy, another "professor from Columbia University." I wonder if he knows Zvarych (no, not the corrupt Zvarych from Western Ukraine who got arrested, Zvarych the guy who graduated from Columbia University, claimed some fictitious graduate degrees, and was Minister of Justice for a while in Ukraine.)
A lighter question:
Who took all of the photos?
To whoever did, thanks for taking them. They are very interesting to look through.
You are welcome! I took all the pics.
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