Police Beat Up T Fare Hike Protesters in Kyiv

A rally outside the Kyiv City Council on Sunday gathered left-wing youths and non-partisan Kyivites unhappy with the recent quadrupling of public transport fare.

The fare has skyrocketed from Hr. 0.5 to Hr. 1.5-2 ($0.25-0.30). In a city where a school teacher makes about Hr. 1,200 a month and monthly rent for a single-room apartment averages Hr. 3,600, the rally was surprisingly small and peaceful.



The protesters brought a “coffin of the bourgeois,” burned a few tires symbolizing the “fare yoke,” chanted slogans, and sang protest songs.

Riot police responded brutally, clubbing the protesters and dragging them by hair into detention buses, without sparing even minors and journalists.

Is that what Yuriy Lutsenko, today’s Interior Minister, meant when chanting “militsiya z narodom!” (“police with the people!”) during the Orange Revolution? Is he doing penance for hitting Mayor Chernovetsky “in places that men usually take pride in?”

How long before we have Paris all over the place?

Sources: http://kiev.pravda.com.ua/news/4917f55d1e324/