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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Parliament Ratifies Gas-for-Fleet Pact As Thousands Protest



Rihanna picked the wrong country for her “Umbrella” video.












Eggs, smoke grenades flew in the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday as the umbrella-covered majority ratified the Medvedev-Yanukovych Pact.

The unconstitutional treaty that gives Ukraine’s oligarchs gas discounts and extends the presence of Russia's Black Sea Fleet until 2042 gathered 236 votes.

That included absentee MPs Kivalov and Holovaty, members of the ruling Party of Regions.

Outside, thousands of people rallied against the treaty and wrestled with police.

Amid the struggle and mayhem inside, opposition leaders failed to communicate with the protesters outside. In the absence of live coverage, the protesters relied on cell phones and portable radios.

Thus, the protesters on the ground found themselves a little out of touch with the ones on the Rada floor.

Tymoshenko, Yatsenyuk, Hrytsenko, Lutsenko...
From my side of the rally, none of them was seen or heard.







I, for one, did a lot of fence-sitting.



4 comments:

Little Miss Moi said...

Sadly, these scenes have made news even in Australia - I was greeted at work today by my boss who mentioned it right away.

Can i just say, though, that your photos certainly make it seem as though it's another beautiful spring in Kyiv.

Anonymous said...

It was great news here.

We had shots in the parliament but it was like in 1905. A month ago one of the politician told to the other who was accused of corruption that you will hang but that's all.

John Kalitka said...

Taras, that first picture of Putin and Yanukovych (puppet) says it all.... The deal stinks, but is anyone really suprised? Perhpas that is why everyone appears to have been drinking heavily. By the way, who are the guys engaged in fist fights?

Taras said...

Little Miss Moi,

Yes, it was a beautiful sunny day. Too beautiful for such a bad event.

I know it’s not the best of tourist ads, but, given the circumstances, I’m glad the resistance made headlines around the world.

The gas-for-fleet agreement violates the Constitution of Ukraine and should be resisted by all means available.


Ropi,

We haven’t had public hangings in Kyiv since 1946, when Nazi war criminals paid for their crimes.

The hangings took place on what we now call Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square).

That’s the same Maidan where the peaceful Orange Revolution took place.

Who knows what the next revolution will look like?


John,

It’s a famous Orange Revolution-era collage. Unlike the Orange Revolution itself, the collage hasn’t aged a day.

The fight club guys hail from the Party of Regions, BYuT and NUNS.

One of them sent MP Oles Doniy (NUNS) to the hospital.

After an intense round of questioning, only one person IDed the attacker as MP Vasyl Stelmashenko (PRU-Donetsk). A freshman, he had only spent 29 days in office at the time of the beating.