The anti-Maidan and pro-Russian sentiments we hoped to capture on camera proved to be so difficult to find that we had to go to a pro-federalization (which is code for separatism, illegal under Ukrainian law) rally in order to find them. The rally was attended by at most a dozen people and led by a middle-aged man that answered questions from the press. His answers were prepared and practically gleaned from Russian television, but when we approached some of the other people at the rally they had different and sometimes contradictory ideas about why they were standing there. Some claimed that they wanted Kharkiv to be an independent state, others advocated federalization, yet others even expressed a desire to join Russia.

Locals told us that in the weeks following the overthrow of the Yanukovych regime the pro-Russian forces in Kharkiv were quite active, with violent mobs of locals and “tourists” from Russia marching around the city and attacking random people whom they suspected of supporting the new government. Two people died as a result of such attacks, but police presence has since been increased and the violence has subsided.

http://projectmaidan.com/post/81281238510/kharkiv-the-city-i-got-wrong

http://www.businessinsider.com/sochi-ghost-city-2014-3

grasswire ‏@grasswire 1h

@Ukroblogger

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/04/1/7020950/
http://pic.twitter.com/soSYwUeX3k

As I’ve noted before the sense of civic duty is soaring in Ukraine. I know a guy who returned from Maidan to organize his neighborhood for some minor civic projects, and another who is a building a corruption-reporting platform.

It’s beautiful, of course, but my fear is that the will to be honest fades. I would rather see Ukrainians focus on local autonomy and privatization — two things proven to reduce corruption regardless of people’s will. When incentives are structured correctly, willful kindness and discipline become much less important.

Below is a picture posted near a Lviv Institute, shaming a lecturer for taking bribes. If education was privatized, institutes wouldn’t need such policing. Their owners would either enforce standards for lecturers/employees or get out competed by people who do.

There are a slew of new taxes coming to Ukraine, including gas, tobacco, alcohol & parcels from abroad. http://censor.net.ua/news/279031/shokovaya_terapiya_v_ukraine_podorojayut_gaz_alkogol_tabak_diztoplivo

Yatzeniuk is not a Prime Minister or statesman. He’s a tax collector appointed by the World Bank. His assignment is

1- to recognize the debt accumulated by the Yanukovych regime as legitimate.
2- keep Ukraine’s centralized, corrupt, inefficient bureaucracies intact so that Ukraine’s gov’t will need permanent support from world bankers.
3- force Ukrainians into a permanent state of dependence.
4- set up a permanent tax collection system so that generations of Ukrainians pay the interest on the country’s debt without lowering the actual debt.

The correct approach would be to:

1- Declare the debt illegitimate and the World Bank liable for supporting a tyrant.
2- Dismantle Ukraine’s centralized bureaucracies and replace them with either local solutions, private solutions, or nothing.
3- Privatize everything which can be privatized.
4- Resist EU demands for regulation in favor of a business friendly low-regulation, low-tax environment.
5- Improve property rights by allowing gun ownership, municipally controlled police and private courts.

[youtube]RO39fOs1QEo[/youtube]

After trying acting Rector interrupt singing anthem of Ukraine students staged chants of “Glory to Ukraine – Heroes of glory – Ukraine Hope truncated – Death vorogam [enemies].”

During the subsequent procedure lifting of the Russian flag and the anthem of the Russian Federation demostrativno dozens of students left the parade ground.

Путин редиска! Песня ультрас в Харькове!

[youtube]ENOPNr5_T2c[/youtube]

The Russian way.

A friend of mine from Estonia:

What infuriates me most is that this is best example we have of semi-libertarian revolution where force was used and the goal of overthrowing the government was reached. We have TONS to learn from this, instead some of the libertarians start calling these people fascists and puppets of West (verbatim Kremlin phraseology, sic!). There was (and there had to be) wide support in society for Maidan protests, otherwise they would have stopped in mid December or so. And they wouldn’t have gotten any further even with millions of € from the west. Instead there was wide logistical support from civil society in Kiev (not even the hotbed of Ukrainian nationalism, which is more in Lviv) to enforce the barricades, feed the protesters, give medical support, etc. People wouldn’t do that for 10$ or 100$, they would do that for freedom and for better tomorrow.

The pictures shared exclusively with The Daily Beast show members of a crack anti-terrorist unit known as the Alfa Team in the courtyard of the headquarters of Ukraine’s feared state security service, the SBU, preparing themselves for battle. The agency’s seven-story headquarters occupies an entire city block and is just three streets from the Maidan.

The SBU is the successor intelligence agency to the Ukrainian branch of the Soviet-era KGB and it still maintains exceptionally close ties to Moscow. For many years “leading SBU functionaries came from the KGB,” says Boris Volodarsky, a former Russian military intelligence officer and author of the book The KGB’s Poison Factory. He says Russia’s intelligence service, now known as the FSB, has made sure over the years to maintain deep penetration of its Ukrainian counterpart and to ensure that its “agents and associates remain in place.” That was easily done during thepresidency of the pro-Russian Yanukovych.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/30/exclusive-photographs-expose-russian-trained-killers-in-kiev.html

A friend of mine who runs a hostile here in Lviv said there was a Russian family living in one of the rooms, rarely leaving, rarely communicating. There was some renovation happening which forced them to change rooms and interact with my friend. It turns out they actually believed all the Russian propaganda about Russian speakers getting murdered in the streets of Lviv. It’d be hard to believe if it wasn’t a first-hand account.

Retweeted Ukrainian Updates (@Ukroblogger):

Georgyi Uchaykin convinces and explains for gun-ownership (on government TV RADA)

[youtube]JbNxT0ZkPWo[/youtube]

[youtube]0LPJQMy4zus[/youtube]

Go east, young man, until the parasites ruling the west are vanquished.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/singapores-changi-airport-named-worlds-best-n63276

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/26/u-s-intel-assessement-greater-likelihood-russia-will-enter-eastern-ukraine/

The buildup is seen to be reminiscent of Moscow’s military moves before it went into Chechnya and Georgia in both numbers of units and their capabilities. . . .

The committee said there was “deep apprehension that Moscow may invade eastern and southern Ukraine, pressing west to Transdniestria and also seek land grabs in the Baltics.”

Transdniestria is a separatist region of Moldova. . . .

American officials believe the more than 30,000 Russian forces on the border with Ukraine, combined with additional Russian forces placed on alert and mobilized to move, give Russian President Vladimir Putin the ability to rapidly move into Ukraine without the United States being able to predict it when it happens.

The assessment makes several new points including:

Troops on Russia’s border with eastern Ukraine – which exceed 30,000 – are “significantly more” than what is needed for the “exercises” Russia says it has been conducting, and there is no sign the forces are making any move to return to their home bases. . . .

The troops on the border with Ukraine include large numbers of
“motorized” units that can quickly move. Additional special forces, airborne troops, air transport and other units that would be needed appear to be at a higher state of mobilization in other locations in Russia. . . .

The belief is that Russian forces would move toward three Ukrainian cities: Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk in order to establish land access into Crimea. Russian forces are currently positioned in and around Rostov, Kursk, and Belgorod, according to U.S. intelligence information.

security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/26/u-s-intel-assessement-greater-likelihood-russia-will-enter-eastern-ukraine/

Capital flight from Russia has spiked dramatically since President Vladimir Putin first sent troops into Crimea and may reach $70bn (£42bn) over the first quarter of the year, prompting fears that the country may soon have to impose capital controls to stem the loss.

Andrei Klepach, the deputy economy minister, admitted in Moscow that the outflows are likely to reach $65-70bn, far higher than originally expected and a clear sign that investors are extremely nervous of escalating sanctions.

“It is shocking,” said Bartosz Pawlowski from BNP Paribas. “Markets have been extremely complacent, fooling themselves that Russia is invulnerable because it has almost half a trillion in foreign reserves. But reserves can become almost irrelevant in this sort of crisis.”

Lars Christensen from Danske Bank said the authorities may resort to some form of financial coercion to lock down funds in Russia. “Capital controls are a serious risk, and should not be discounted. Whatever now happens, there has been permanent damage to the Russian economy because investors are not going to forget this lightly.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10720226/Capital-controls-feared-in-Russia-after-70bn-flight.html