Only today did I realize that the term “Yanushesku” is a comparison bw/ Yanukovych and ousted Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.

I want to see a guy with a motorcycle helmet and an axe handle on Ukrainian money. #ukraineprotests

Curt:

MARCH 1ST :REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEERS TO CLEAN UP MAIDAN

Well, I was too much of a coward to go fight, (and I didn’t feel I had the right to), but I think I’ll go help clean up a bit. At least I’ll feel like I did something to honor the dead and the people who did the fighting, even if it’s really small – even insignificant. I don’t know any other way to show respect for those that did the real work.

Curt is being modest. His intellectual contribution is enormous. If it isn’t affecting Ukrainians already, it will be soon.

Me? I did the “work” of spending one night on maidan a couple weeks ago, walking from the kitchen to all the barricades with hot tea. It was cold, but not cold enough for glory. :)

Yanukovych was in prison several times including in his yough for petty crime. There is a story among prisoners that birds of prey represent law and justice. This is also a story that Yanukovych was extremely superstitious, especially after some Hutsul shaman predicted his death several years ago. So some people are saying that the crucified birds were Yanukovych’s attempt to exorcise that curse.

Edit: A much less fun possibility is that this is a normal procedure for drying game.

As are many Ukrainians, I’m sure.

:)

(rumor)

Rally car racer Alexey Mochanov @ Maidan yesterday: “We don’t need a President at all. Just Parliament and free people!” #ukraineprotests

Activists meet Arseny Yatsenyuk and Yulia Tymoshenko in airport to remind them who made revolution. They criticize Yatsenyuk for attempt to avoid activist near airport gate. “Don’t try to do that!” – they notify him/ He looks embarassed. “Yulia do you understand who did the revolution?” “Yes, people did. You did” “Don’t betray us!”

[youtube]vcBYN4mE6uc[/youtube]

Context from my earlier post here: http://romaninukraine.com/government-thugs-beat-up-a-russian-journalist-who-attempted-to-portray-them-as-heroes/

I like these recurring characters. I want to give Topaz a big hug and tell him that everything’s going to be okay. He seems like a dumb kid that got in over his head — comically incompetent and unlucky.

[youtube]P5Sfn75jGY4[/youtube]

Maidan units asks him why he had gas grenades in his bag and why is he in Kyiv

girl is totally drunk

his girlsfriend or something

400 hryvnias per day – his wage

Thanks to Andriy the above translation and the endless flow of fascinating links!!!

A former Israeli army officer is playing a leading role in the anti-government protests in Ukraine, PressTV has reported.

According to reports, the unnamed Israeli is commanding a group of 20 Ukrainian militants while four other Israelis, who had also previously served in the army, are reported to have taken part in opposition rallies in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.

The Israelis were born in Ukraine but migrated to Israel and joined its armed forces before returning to the European country for the demonstrations.

Ukrainian media has also said that an Israeli tycoon provides financial support to the opposition in Ukraine, adding that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency is one of the instigators of the unrest in the country.

Despite calls by Jewish leaders to remain neutral, young Jews have been on the front lines of protests against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, the Jerusalem Post wrote last December.

Alexandra Oleynikova, a young Jewish activist involved in organizing Limmud conferences, told the Post that while some Jews stayed away out of fear, other young Ukrainian Jews who work for international organizations such as JDC, Hillel and Limmud are “really active” in offering support as well as “organizing the barricades”.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA): “A number of young Jews are involved in the protests, which have drawn together a diverse coalition of liberal youth and opposition party leaders, including members of the ultranationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has freely trafficked anti-Semitic stereotypes”.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-protests-israeli-ex-officer-leads-militant-group-094657071.html#qWrEFan

I laughed out loud. This music is so perfect!

[youtube]XIdaHFIMs9I[/youtube]

12 communist at a gathering. They worked in a hotel and the sad story begins. The went swimming in the sea. Jumping and splashing. Two remained under the water. The party became smaller . . . they went to eat. two got food poisoning . . . .

I can’t understand all of it.

there’s a fire from a cigarette toward the end.

I don’t completely get the closing refrain, but it’s something about “but they’re still sitting on our necks” — which I think is an expression for oppression.

1) Be merciful in victory.

2) Embrace our role as a borderland. No EU! No Russian Kleptocracy! In other words, connect our borderland status to the national myth of Kozaks and find liberty in it.

[youtube]qSvj8F_Br4M[/youtube]

UKRAINE. THE MILITIA : EVERY ABLE BODIED MAN

Ukraine made a militia out of ad hoc barricades, old tires, molotovs, custom made armor, surplus helmets and construction gear.

Large groups of Ukrainians are patrolling the streets for troublemakers. The police are just ‘gone’. Invisible. They are wearing soviet era helmets, makeshift armor, and carrying baseball bats and lengths of pipe.

No bravado. Just doing it.

If every able bodied (and sane) man (and woman) is armed, and trained, then your government cannot oppress you. If your government does not want every able bodied (and sane) man (and woman) armed and trained, then you have to wonder why they would fear such a thing. If you aren’t willing to commit yourself to being armed and trained (if sane) then you cannot possibly claim that you have earned your property rights. ‘Cause you haven’t. You’re a parasite on the commitment, risk and effort of others.

Pacifist libertarianism is just an excuse for free riding: parasitism.

If you don’t have a militia, you don’t have freedom.

You merely have permission.

I’m sure I’m not the only Ukrainian dizzy with pride right now. :)

So, the rumor had a reliable source: an interview with Dmytro Iakosh, the leader of the core protester group known as “Pravi Sektor” (Right Sector). It was published in this magazine: http://gazeta.ua/articles/politics/_pislya-peremogi-revolyuciyi-ministerstvo-vnutrishnih-sprav-potribno-rozformuvati-najcikavishe-u-novij-krayini/543164

I have a paper copy.

The journalist ask whether it’s true that a “sotnia” of Israelis was among the protesters. (There was never any mention of soldiers.)

“Sotnia” can mean the military unit “company” or a hundred people. Also, in Ukrainian, the PC word of “Jew” is the same as the word for “Israeli.”

Dmytro Iakosh replies that it was less than a “sotnia,” then adds that Belarussians and Russians were also among the protesters.

That’s all we get.

I can understand why Israel would be interested in weakening Putin, but there is definitely not enough here on which to build a narrative of a conspiracy. It looks to me like these protests were home grown.

Jews have a long turbulent history in Ukraine. Hasidic Judiasm was invented in Ukraine. There is much travel between the two countries.

[youtube]v6jHhzj08yQ[/youtube]

Great strategic analysis from the Russian / European perspective. I think the interests of Ukrainians can be squared with these strategic realities if their accept the legacy of their Kozak heritage (national myth), insist that NATO stays the hell out, and keeps Russian corruption in check.

Some refinements:

1. For better or worse, the “One Ukraine” idea seems to have to have emerged very strongly from this. Reports of Lviv secession seem to be wrong. I heard them too, but only from western sources. Nothing here in actual Lviv. I suspect a mistranslation somewhere.

2. This was NEVER a civil war. So comparisons to Yugoslavia are wrong. I didn’t realize this myself until recently. It’s a rebellion of Ukrainians against their gov’t with a mixture of sympathy, apathy and skepticism from the Russian population.

3. Ukraine’s oligarchs do have some ties to the Russian ones, but I sense they fear Russian supervision as much as they fear EU supervision.

4. Yes. As he says, Ukraine (or, more precisely, Kievan-Rus) is the “precedent” for Russian identity. Very astute observation.