Will this election unite Ukraine? (video)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman (democracynow.org)

As unrest grows, is Ukraine paying price of U.S.-Russian ties stuck in Cold War era?

Abuse of female protester, Ukraine (FEMEN)

At least 30 pro-Russian rebels have reportedly died in fierce fighting at the airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. The Ukrainian government bombarded the airport with air strikes, then paratroopers, after rebels seized it on Monday. The fighting began just hours after the pro-European billionaire candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko won Ukraine’s first presidential election since the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych.

Sexism may be alive and well in Europe, Russia

After his election, Petro Poroshenko said he was ready to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he ruled out any talks with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. To discuss these developments, DN is joined by three guests: Christopher Miller of the Kyiv Post, reporting just steps from the embattled airport in Donetsk; Jack Matlock, the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991; and Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, who just returned from Kiev and wrote the article in The New York Review of Books titled Ukraine: The Edge of Democracy. More

• VIDEO: Russian jets over Crimea, Ukraine

• After chaotic autonomy votes, negotiations could be sole path to prevent Ukraine’s disintegration 
• Remembering Vincent Harding, the great civil rights activist who wrote MLK’s speech against the U.S. War on Vietnam Theologian and civil rights activist Dr. Vincent Harding died on May 19 at the age of 82 in Philadelphia. He lived in Denver, but was in Pennsylvania where he had been teaching at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center. Harding was a close adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote King’s famous antiwar speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence." King delivered the address at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967 — exactly one year...

Putin: "Crimea [river, cry me a sea!]" (video)

Amber Larson, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Sergei L. Loiko (LAT); Amy Goodman (DN!); FEMEN

Femen sexstremists spur Ukrainian Revolution with Tymoshenko braids (femen.org)

Authoritarian Russian KGB/President Vlad Putin faces off with young, topless FEMEN demonstrator as European leaders, including Germany's Angela Merkel, shrink and cower.

 

Who is provoking unrest in Ukraine? Role of USA (CIA) and Russia

 

Russia is vowing to keep its troops in the Ukrainian region of Crimea in what has become Moscow’s biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War. Ukraine’s new prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said Pres. Putin had effectively declared war on his country. Concern is growing that more of eastern Ukraine could soon fall to the Russians. Earlier today, Russian troops seized a Ukraine coast guard base in the Crimean city of Balaklava.

 

On Sunday, the new head of Ukraine’s navy defected to Russia. To talk more about the crisis in Ukraine, Democracy Now! spoke to Yale history professor Timothy Snyder. His latest article for The New York Review of Books is "Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda." DN also spoke to retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern. He focused on Russian foreign policy for the first decade of his 27-year career with the agency and recently wrote an article titled "Ukraine: One 'Regime Change' Too Many?" More

Russians invading Crimea, Ukraine

Anti-Putin protests, EU consulate (FEMEN)

BAKHCHISARAI, Ukraine - The tense military standoff in Crimea continued today as Ukraine’s army and naval forces were blockaded by invading Russian troops and supporters, at some sites demanding that the Ukrainian units surrender their bases and swear allegiance to the Kremlin and Russia’s armed forces.

The demand represented an alarming sign that the fresh Russian forces had come here to stay, some analysts said.

Stop Putin. Ukraine must be free! (FEMEN)

“The fact that Russians openly demand that Ukrainian officers and soldiers in the Crimea take a military oath to Russia may mean one thing: The Kremlin intends to keep them here for a long time, if not for good,” said Kost Bondarenko, head of the Ukrainian Policy Institute, a think-tank based in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

“It means that Ukraine is steadily losing the Crimea to Russia, and it will be extremely difficult to get it back as the Ukrainian army is incapable of opposing Russia," he said. More

VENEZUELA: Tens of thousands march in anti-government protests

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The war to come in Kiev, Ukraine (video)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; BBC.co.uk; FEMEN.org; Los Angeles Times  UPDATED

There have been sporadic clashes through the day, as BBC's Duncan Crawford reports.

Putin says it's time for a police state in Kiev, and Ukraine president says sir, yes, sir!

 

Protesters momentarily get the upper hand.

Paramilitary police clashed with anti-government protesters in the center of Kiev on Feb. 18. State-sanctioned violence has left at least 100 citizens dead. Police snipers shot at protesters heads to bring them down with single wounds to the head; phalanxes of police have been firing shotguns into crowds; undercover police have been executing citizens; and military-armed police are firing deadly cannon-like rubber munitions at stone-throwing protesters near Ukraine's parliament.

Mind your own business, America!

Police also attacked civilians with smoke bombs and water cannons after protesters hurled paving stones as they sought to get closer to the heavily-fortified parliament building. Reports state that protesters have captured 64 police agents. See extensive coverage at KyivPost.com, but be forewarned it is sympathetic to murderous police and government shot callers.
 

FEMEN activist/topless protester for Kiev

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has fired the head of the armed forces, Col. Gen. Volodymyr Zamana, according to the president's website.

  Reports

The move comes after the most intense violence in [former Soviet state] Ukraine's three-month crisis turned the capital of Kiev into a battle zone against civilians.

Ukraine is "going West," joining European Economic Union over Russia (femen.org)

 

Earlier the state security service announced it was launching a nationwide "anti-terrorist" [terrorist = protester] campaign, to deal with a growing "extremist threat."

 

F you, dictator Putin (femen.org/en)

There was a suggestion the armed forces could be deployed for the first time [to help the paramilitary police kill more civilian civil rights protesters]. Col. Gen. Zamana has been replaced by the commander of Ukraine's Navy, Admiral Yuriy Ilyin, by presidential decree, President Yanukovych's website said. [One military man for another, that ought to lead to peace and calm.] More + VIDEO

• Live news (BBC) - Pictures - Crisis explained - Timeline

Ukrainian protest fires burn in capital of Kiev after police kill protesters (BBC)

 

This war began long ago

You don't talk like that, young lady!

(FEMEN.org) KIEV, Ukraine - "Ukraine is not Alina." FEMEN has long protested Russian Dictator Putin's intervention in the affairs of the Ukraine. FEMEN fought against electoral fraud during the elections to the Duma. In 2012 at polling station where operatives were "stealing for Putin!" FEMEN activists tried to take the voice of Putin during Russian presidential voting. "Putin is the Apocalypse"! In 2013 in Germany FEMEN said, "F*ck you, Putin!" As for Kiev at the Russian Embassy, it's "Forward Russia. More

Pussy Riot beaten and whipped in Sochi
August Brown (AP/latimes.com, Feb. 19, 2014)

Pussy Riot in Sochi in balacavas (latimes.com)

Mere days after police detained them in Sochi, Russia, Nadya Tolokonnikova, Masha Alyokhina, and other members of Pussy Riot were attacked by whip-wielding Cossacks in Sochi today, according to reports.
 

According to The Guardian (UK) and other outlets, members of the punk feminist activist group had assembled in their iconic bright balaclavas [knitted face scarves] in an area about 20 miles from the site of the Winter Olympics.
 

Senator McCain meddling for US

As they prepared to play a new song, "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland," they were surrounded by plainclothes security officers.

There were also surrounded by uniformed Cossacks with whips, who were enlisted as an informal security force during the Sochi Games.
 
Cossacks, an equestrian-focused rural Russian culture,  have re-emerged as a symbol of conservative and militaristic values during Putin's presidency [a.k.a. dictatorship]. More

Deadliest Day in Ukraine Protests
Victoria Butenko and Carol J. Williams (latimes.com, Feb. 18, 2014)

Hundreds of thousands of protesters in streets

KIEV, Ukraine - At least nine people were killed yesterday [Feb. 17th] in the deadliest day of the 3-month-old Ukrainian political crisis.

[Paramilitary police attacked] demonstrators and later stormed their encampment at Kiev's Independence Square, the Maidan, local and international media reported.

Live television coverage carried by the Russia-24 news channel and nine live-streaming video cameras at the protest site and relayed by Ukrainian opposition broadcasters showed fiery explosions illuminating the grimy tent city in the capital after demonstrators ignored a [threat] from police to clear the square.

Ukrainians see their president as "traitor"

[WHY? It seems Russian Dictator or Presisenty Putin has ordered Ukraine's President. Yanukovich to severely crack down on Ukrainian demonstrators -- with military weaponry, forces, snipers, and plain clothes assassins -- to stop drawing attention to the plight of Ukraine and away from nearby Sochi, where Russia is trying to host a glorious Winter Olympics.]

Clouds of smoke from fires and tear gas could be seen wafting over the chaotic scene, eerily backlit with an orange glow from the multitude of blasts, burning sandbags, and smoldering debris.

Protest action in Moscow (Denis Bochkarev)

[Paramilitary police] forces began moving against the protesters' camp with water cannons and stun grenades after giving them 15 minutes' warning to leave.

But thousands of protesters remained in the square despite the caustic gas engulfing the nerve center of the uprising against President Viktor Yanukovich. More

Full coverage
(Los Angeles Times)

At least two dead as Ukraine protests rage: The crowd, many wearing helmets and brandishing homemade shields and wooden sticks, responded with a roar.

  
Ukraine uprising erupts in killings, arson, raids
He also accused two top U.S. diplomats -- Victoria Nuland, who oversees European affairs at the State Department... before Tuesday's violent eruption.

Ukrainians see worrisome nationalistic elements among protesters
...oppose the revolution spreading like wildfire across the country," he said. "We can take any ministry, any court, any agency in Kiev today, and no one can prevent us."

Ukraine president offers prime minister post to opposition leader
...year driver from the town of Obukhov near Kiev, said as [he] set fire to a piece of cloth in the neck of a beer bottle that was flung toward the police a second later. 

Ukraine protesters reject deal with president
...ground floor of the Agriculture Ministry next to Independence Square [Maidan] and captured the building, the UNIAN information agency reported. 

Ukraine demonstrators clash with riot police
...I decided not to go to Grushevsky [Street] because by our presence we can only aggravate the provocation which is taking place there now."
Why is John McCain meddling in Ukraine?

Topless REVOLUTION in Ukraine (video)

Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Seven, CC Liu, Dev, Wisdom Quarterly; FEMEN

What is underlying the revolution in the Ukraine, an oppressed part of old Soviet Union?

Revolution goes on! Ukrainians, stay strong!

Topless protest (censored for US audience) Ukraine to EU! Revolution goes on! (femen)

 

Russia's Pussy Riot supports Femen

FEMEN (a pro-freedom, anti-patriarchy movement) supports the EuroMaidan struggle of the Ukrainian people suffering under a totalitarian government who wish to align with the EU.

FEMEN supports every single demonstrator who right now is at Independence Square (the Maidan) protesting dictatorship in the country and the undue influence of old-and-cold friend Russia -- fighting instead for a better future along European standards.

EuroMaiden demonstrations with 200,000+ protesters, ma ''Гімн України'' 200 тисяч людей на #Євромайдан #Euromaidan #Евромайдан (Dec. 14, 2013)

Police oppress demonstrators (Guardian)

FEMEN calls on everyone who is still sitting at home to get out and to join the struggle for freedom. The world has to finally hear the voice of the nation and not be drowned out by betrayers of the nation, such as Pres. Yanukovich!

John McCain (USA) in Kiev church

FEMEN joins the fight and will fight for our country, and our freedoms, and our right to be back home! The Orange Revolution was the beginning of fight; the revolution still goes on. There is no elevator on the way to freedom. We have to take the stairs! So, let's move on. Go Ukraine! Ukraine to EU!

Why is right wing Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) meeting with the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Kiev and meddling in Ukrainian affairs? (See photo at right). Along with Democratic party traitor Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) stripped protections, McCain pushed the draconian "indefinite detention" bill called the NDAA. It gives Obama and all future American presidents the authority to indefinitely imprison (disappear, erase , undo) any American citizen without trial, without charges, without telling anyone, and without a chance of anyone doing anything about it.

The military-industrial-congressional complex has incredible reach. It is not only about control of the US government. The powers that be, with the help of UN military forces, are aiming to take control of the world.

• Hi, 1984: There is a law to strip Americans of all rights
  

Visiting FEMEN's Topless Boot Camp

WARNING: Exposed breasts, topless protests! (BBC/AH 2013) A visit to boot camp: BBC Newsnight's Zoe Conway went to the Paris headquarters of FEMEN -- feminist activists whose trademark is the "topless ambush."

Ukraine: Demonstrators flood Kiev for EU deal

Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Oksana Grytsenko in Kiev (Nov. 24), Shaun Walker and Oksana Grytsenko (theguardian.com, Dec. 15, 2013); FEMEN.org/en

The biggest demonstrations since the "Orange Revolution" are continuing in the Ukraine after Pres. Viktor Yanukovych allegedly aborted a trade deal with the European Union under Russian pressure to stick with the former USSR. 

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have flooded the streets of Kiev in the biggest anti-government protest since the 2004 Orange Revolution to demand President Viktor Yanukovych reverse a decision not to sign a key pact with the European Union. 

Ukrainian Nordic beauty, human-deva hybrids?

The rally, which may herald the most serious challenge to Yanukovych's authority since he came to power in 2010, ended with scuffles with police outside government offices.

Police [reacted] with teargas. Ukraine was to have signed a historic free trade and association deal with the EU at this week's Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. EU officials said Ukraine's abrupt U-turn came as a result of Kremlin pressure.

Riot police clash with Ukrainians near the cabinet building in Kiev (Alexey Furman/EPA)

 

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, wants Kiev to join a Moscow-led customs union. [Allegedly] an estimated 45% of Ukraine's population support closer ties with the West instead.

 

Ukraine president is unpopular

"We want to be in Europe" said 46-year-old Liudmyla Babych, a saleswoman from Kiev, holding a placard reading, "Mr. President – the Ukrainian nation will not forgive you this treason."

 

The protesters marched through the streets of Kiev as part of a nationwide day of protest chanting the slogans "Out with the gang!" and "Ukraine is Europe" and singing songs popular during the Orange revolution. Tens of thousands of people held a peaceful meeting on... More

Who rules the Ukraine, people or gov't?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

FEMEN stands against dictators in Ukraine

That was the headline in November. By the middle of December, the sides had grown in intensity. The police and politicians are conservatives, the people radicals for change -- greater trade and affiliation with the West. The EU versus RU (Russia, or what's left of the USSR), who will win the hearts and minds of the Ukrainians?

Oops, it's already been won by the EU. That will not stop Vlad Putin from putting inordinate pressure on its president to remain a Russian ally -- even if it means a massive and bloody police state intervention. Paramilitary police and secret forces are already on the scene beating civilians, deploying teargas, and planning for a major crackdown. People can simply not be allowed the delusion that their voice matters. When it comes to governing a modern "democracy," what matters most is what those tricky enough to rig elections decide. 

Ukraine protesters return en masse to central Kiev for pro-EU campaign

Shaun Walker and Oksana Grytsenko (theguardian.com)

Kiev, Dec. 15, 2013 (theguardian.com)

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians brave freezing weather to demand EU integration despite suspension of negotiations on the agreement due to Russian interference.
 
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians braved freezing temperatures and aggressive [paramilitary] policing to return to central Kiev on Sunday to demand political change, sending a message to authorities that the crisis over the government's failure to sign an EU integration pact is unlikely to end soon.

With the news that the EU has suspended negotiations on the agreement likely to further inflame the mood, at least 200,000 people packed into Independence Square, known as the Maidan, to hear music and speeches from the trio of Ukrainian politicians who have attempted to lead the spontaneous outpouring of anger. More

Protest: An Ultimatum in Ukraine

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Victoria Butenko, Sergei L. Loiko (latimes.com)

A protester faces riot troops protecting Ukraine's presidential administration building in Kiev (Sergei L. Loiko/latimes.com)

 

Ukraine bows to Russian pressure (LAT)

KIEV, Ukraine - Protesters toppled a monument to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin on Sunday during the biggest march and rally in central Kiev since Pres. Viktor Yanukovich galvanized his opposition by turning down a trade deal with the European Union (EU).

 

The protesters blocked and barricaded government offices and said they were giving Yanukovich 48 hours to disband his government [just as happened in Iceland] before marching on his country residence near Kiev. A government spokesman said Yanukovich's administration was "ready for negotiations."
 
In turning down the trade deal with the EU, Yanukovich was in effect asserting that Russia remained Ukraine's key trading partner. The country [formerly a part of Finland] is politically and geographically divided between those who favor ties to Russia and those who would like to see Ukraine more aligned with Western Europe.
 

Seven Balkans still not part of EU (LAT)

That gave the toppling of the Lenin statue symbolic resonance -- despite the fact that most Lenin statues in Russia itself were torn down during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Statues of the Soviet leader were once ubiquitous throughout the East bloc, but those that remain are more likely to be museum pieces than public memorials.
  
No police officers could be seen anywhere in the vicinity of Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, where the granite and marble monument was brought crashing into the street by a group of young protesters. "It is amazing how the authorities allowed Lenin to go down!" said Sergei Andriyenko, a 51-year-old Kiev businessman who applauded the action. "Where were the police, where were the communists who were always protecting him?" More

Sheriffs indicted for crimes against humanity; "sad day," Sheriff Baca laments

In spite of what Baca claims, the misconduct and abuse charges suggest a larger, institutional problem with the abusive guards in L.A. County jails.

Police abusing and murdering SoCal citizens  at will

18 LA sheriff's officials indicted, accused of abuse, obstruction

Eighteen current or former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials have been indicted in five separate criminal cases in...

Retired FBI agent: "Deadly force" used on Kelly Thomas

The use-of-force expert says striking a suspect in the head with an impact weapon is NOT acceptable police procedure. 

Viagra for women? Blue pills may help alleviate menstrual cramps 

Beached whales, all female or calves, died near each other

Striking L.A. County social workers rally on Monday

Kendall (Kardashian-)Jenner leaves Harry Stiles in UK