tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53518280700481594342024-02-20T04:50:07.299+00:00Maxim TuckerNews journalistMax Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-29424473496944986802014-01-05T00:00:00.000+00:002014-01-07T15:40:13.546+00:00Ukraine protest leaders assaulted outside Kiev police station<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">(As
published in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-protest-leaders-assaulted-outside-kiev-police-station-9039187.html"><i>The Independent on Sunday</i></a>)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"> A parliamentarian who organised Ukraine's pro-EU
protests, in which thousands demanded the removal of President Viktor
Yanukovych, was assaulted on Friday night in the latest in a series of violent
attacks on the demonstrations' organisers. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">Andriy Illienko, a Svoboda
Party MP, and party activist and lawyer Sydir Kizin were leaving a police
station in central Kiev when they were set upon by a gang of youths.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">Around a
dozen men reportedly kicked and punched the two men but fled when the attack
was interrupted by two passers-by, who Svoboda said had rescued their members
from "probable death". </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">An ambulance crew at the scene told <i>The
Independent on Sunday</i> that the MP had suffered a fractured jaw and
concussion. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">Shortly before the attack, Mr Illienko had been speaking to
officers at Shevchenko District police station about an incident in which the
Svoboda Party accused police of conspiring with nationalist marchers who threw
flaming torches at a Kiev hotel on New Year's Day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">In a statement responding to
the assault on Mr Illienko, the party said: "The Svoboda Party considers
this attack as a particularly cynical attempt on the life of a statesman. This
attack was planned in advance, with thugs and police acting as a coalition." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">A
recent string of attacks has targeted the opposition and pro-EU activists who
have led five weeks of protests against the government's rejection of a free
trade and political integration agreement with the EU in favour of closer ties
with Russia. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">On Christmas Eve, a pro-EU activist, Dmitry Pylypets, was stabbed
outside his apartment in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine.Opposition journalist Tetyana
Chornovol was beaten unconscious after assailants drove her car off the road on
Christmas Day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;">In the past month, police have raided an opposition headquarters
and three critical news outlets, seizing hard drives and computer servers.
Authorities have twice used force to try to clear protesters from Kiev's
Independence Square.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial;"> Police announced yesterday that they had opened an
investigation into the latest attack but had no suspects.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-26691333305258021752013-12-25T10:00:00.000+00:002014-01-03T22:43:15.778+00:00Activist and journalist who organised pro-EU protests in Ukraine assaulted and hospitalised in separate incidents<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/activist-and-journalist-who-organised-proeu-protests-in-ukraine-assaulted-and-hospitalised-in-separate-incidents-9025179.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A journalist and an activist who organised mass pro-EU protests in Ukraine were assaulted and hospitalised in separate incidents on Tuesday night.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Activist Dmitry Pylypets told <em style="outline: none;">The Independent</em> he <em style="outline: none;"> </em>was approached by two men outside his apartment in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine. They stabbed him at least four times, told him to stop organising protests, and left him bleeding on the street. Mr Pylyets believes the attack could have been much worse if his assailants had not been interrupted by a passing driver.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Journalist Tetyana Chornovil was driving home from Kiev when she noticed she was being followed by an SUV. The pursuers rammed her car, forcing her to flee on foot. She told reporters that two men leapt out of the SUV, chased her down, and beat her unconscious. Doctors say she needs surgery to reconstruct her face.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have taken to the streets over the past month to protest their government’s decision to abandon a historic Association Agreement with the EU, which would have given Ukraine free access to European markets in exchange for democracy and human rights reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Russian President Vladimir Putin looks to have killed the deal, years in the making, by agreeing a 15 billion dollar bail-out for Ukraine's floundering economy and slashing the price of gas exports to Ukraine by a third. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych insists he still intends to sign the Agreement next year, but Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov made it clear on Monday that Moscow would block the move.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Responding to a question about whether Kiev could still sign a pact with the EU having secured multi-billion dollar financial assistance from Russia, he said:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The financial assistance agreement gives us the right to demand that the Ukrainian government repay this loan at any time, backed by the most severe legal consequences." </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Russia has previously threatened to block Ukrainian imports and increase gas prices if Ukraine signed the agreement with the EU. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The attacks are the latest in a series of actions targeting pro-Europe demonstrators. A third activist died in hospital earlier this week after being assaulted by three men he said were police officers on 18 December.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">36 internationals, including former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, have been banned from Ukraine by the country’s state security services for affiliating with demonstration organisers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International rights organisation Human Rights Watch have also accused President Yanukovych’s government of intimidating those who complained about police violence during the protests.</span>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-88014141402184797452013-12-13T21:48:00.000+00:002013-12-18T22:15:14.283+00:00Ukraine protesters: ‘We want our country to have EU values, not a dictatorship’(Edit published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-protesters-we-want-our-country-to-have-eu-values-not-a-dictatorship-9004211.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a>)</i><br />
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Yuri, 34, is a tax lawyer working for an international law firm in Kiev<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfS_c2_fAdJ4Shz_bdM4NfxKiDdmJSfQSUKEilnMnZKv1r4npBELAvi5tGn9mVNkuEgAbVmNJYugz6noyC53fRGfWfQQv9tNAT31pHiKWI0_gYS40ifEjuOyeVx05GzAyN-7dl0xvql_G/s1600/IMG_4190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfS_c2_fAdJ4Shz_bdM4NfxKiDdmJSfQSUKEilnMnZKv1r4npBELAvi5tGn9mVNkuEgAbVmNJYugz6noyC53fRGfWfQQv9tNAT31pHiKWI0_gYS40ifEjuOyeVx05GzAyN-7dl0xvql_G/s200/IMG_4190.JPG" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">I’ve been going to Independence Square almost every day since the President refused to sign the Association Agreement, after the famous journalist Mustafa Nayem posted on Facebook saying he was going to demonstrate and why. I went because the President has told people for three or four years that he would sign the agreement, and then refused to do it without consulting anyone or preparing anyone for that. I went to say that I disagreed with one man deciding a strange course for our country. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">On November 30th, police beat up students, kids, who were staying the night on the square. Now I’m standing there for my rights, and the rights of my children. If we will not go there now, we should forget about democracy, about peaceful demonstrations, about any rights not in line with the desires of our President.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">I’m going to the square when I’m needed there, when there are police movements. If that is during the day, I work during the evening. I’m usually there between 4am and 7am, because it is the most difficult time for people and police try to clear the square when there are less of us. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">It’s hard for me to work right now, my thoughts are always on the square, and all the time I’m checking the news. It’s difficult to sleep when you can get a call at 2am, saying come now because they are demolishing the camp, and you are getting up, taking your ski helmet and standing there all night.</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Sophia, 23, is from Kiev and works in the events industry</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYmdLrs-l1kT6NrbvpBVgSF8s3LBkTQx0HSRczpPe2ySvKmdnfkbJpW7aMTfsB8YALnbAH8tgLcY1sDvO9HodVIEvZnOXcT-pLX6enI1H1fZ1ad4a5zPwHpuRgBi9UCIf2Y0K9_jLC4R7-/s1600/IMG_4202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYmdLrs-l1kT6NrbvpBVgSF8s3LBkTQx0HSRczpPe2ySvKmdnfkbJpW7aMTfsB8YALnbAH8tgLcY1sDvO9HodVIEvZnOXcT-pLX6enI1H1fZ1ad4a5zPwHpuRgBi9UCIf2Y0K9_jLC4R7-/s200/IMG_4202.JPG" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">I first went to Independence Square on 22 November, the day after the government announced they wouldn’t sign the agreement. It was pretty clear for me that meant they would sign an agreement with Russia, which would be like going back to the Soviet Union. It would mean an end to human rights and freedom of expression. But at least in the Soviet Union there were still some morals and ethics, and people were educated in science and culture. These guys who are the government of Ukraine are not educated, ignorant criminals. They don’t care about people’s education.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">I’m going to Independence Square after work, sometimes during the day on my way to work. I’m at every major rally. All my thoughts are in the revolution right now, it’s pretty hard to focus. I always have my Facebook open at work, I constantly check it and opposition media for news. During the past few weeks, you can expect something new to happen every twenty minutes.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">After November 30th, my reasons changed a bit. The government tries to disperse the protest when there are less of us. If they achieve this, they will feel their power and introduce a new wave of repression. Now I’m not going to the square just because I want Ukraine to sign an agreement with the EU. I want the government and this President to leave.</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Lubomyra, 63, is a doctor. She returned to Kiev from her home in Germany to support the protesters</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR54obb7V_HxG4iFYAlWnE-6O6NtpxOgfotML83aOcu_UR2Sq-RbxxQbA7LZg7icsaRHtJz9pL6T2DeiQ2W7vDXdbYT8AtvrlIOQK7jBKootgDWpo_6jgQwtGHwNvrvpUupdv8sHG55qTI/s1600/IMG_4206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR54obb7V_HxG4iFYAlWnE-6O6NtpxOgfotML83aOcu_UR2Sq-RbxxQbA7LZg7icsaRHtJz9pL6T2DeiQ2W7vDXdbYT8AtvrlIOQK7jBKootgDWpo_6jgQwtGHwNvrvpUupdv8sHG55qTI/s200/IMG_4206.JPG" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">For the last three years I have been living in Weimar, Germany, with my husband. I’m originally from Kiev and spent several years working in Moscow, but we met in Ukraine. When I heard about the government decision not to sign the EU agreement, I knew I had to return to do something for my country. I was afraid for the students protesting all night on Independence Square, and wanted to help them. I worked in the medical tent, but also preparing hot tea and food for the protesters.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">On 30th November the students were singing the national anthem and I was in the medical tent. We were surrounded by riot police in helmets and balaclavas. At first students were chanting ‘police are with the people’, but then police attacked. They hit everyone with truncheons, even those in sleeping bags on the floor. I ran to some of the students on the floor, and stood in front of them with my arms spread out. One of the officers ran towards me and hit me, striking my arm. I later found out it was broken. It was terrifying, I couldn’t see his eyes and I didn’t know how we could protect these kids. There was blood all over the square.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Police chased demonstrators down the streets, beating them. We took refuge in St. Michael’s monastery. After the attack, police came to my home and questioned me. My lawyer advised me not to go to the protests any more, but I have continued to go everyday. I want Ukraine to have European values, freedom of speech and other human rights. Not this dictatorship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-6278368515732887452013-12-12T22:17:00.000+00:002013-12-18T22:21:15.519+00:00Ukraine ‘still intends to sign pact with EU,’ says Viktor Yanukovych(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-still-intends-to-sign-pact-with-eu-says-viktor-yanukovych-9001705.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i>)<br />
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Faced with tens of thousands of protesters in the streets and growing economic woes, Ukraine’s President appeared to be nearing a U-turn over his country’s future, telling the European Union’s most-senior diplomat that he would sign a pact on closer integration with the bloc.<br />
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Viktor Yanukovych did not, however, give any timescale for putting pen to paper on the association agreement, leading to concerns that he might once again be trying to play the EU and Russia against one another in the hopes of securing a better financial deal.<br />
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Baroness Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, had travelled to Kiev to try to forge a diplomatic solution to the three-week long crisis, which erupted when Mr Yanukovych abruptly pulled out of a deal promising closer trade and political ties with the EU. Instead, he said he would pursue links with Moscow, angering many Ukrainians who envisage a more prosperous future with the EU.<br />
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“Yanukovych made it clear to me that he intends to sign the association agreement,” the baroness told reporters as she arrived back in Brussels. She also stressed the long-term economic benefits of the agreement, which was meant to be signed at an EU summit in Lithuania at the end of last month. The deal “will help to bring in the kind of investment that [Yanukovych] needs”, she said.<br />
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A delegation from Ukraine was in the Belgian capital for further talks. But in a sign that the tug-of-war between the EU and Russia over the strategically-placed nation of 46 million people was as fierce as ever, the Russian President Vladimir Putin countered by praising the benefits of the Moscow-led free trade area.<br />
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“Our integration project is based on equal rights and real economic interests,” Mr Putin said in his state-of-the-union address. “I’m sure achieving Eurasian integration will only increase interest from our other neighbours, including from our Ukrainian partners.”<br />
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While the thousands of people packing the squares of Kiev wave EU flags, in the east of the former Soviet nation there is significant support for maintaining close ties with Russia. Negotiations now will focus on whether the EU can come up with a more attractive proposal to help Ukraine’s floundering economy, amid concerns that it will be unable to pay upcoming debts without assistance from the International Monetary Fund.<br />
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“The financial pressures on Yanukovych are increasing by the day,” an EU official told The Independent. While the fundamental pre-conditions of the association agreement could not be re-negotiated, the official noted that “where we can be helpful is trying to help with the IMF.”<br />
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One issue which remains a sticking point is the fate of Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailed former Prime Minister and bitter rival of Mr Yanukovych. The EU had said Ukraine must address “selective justice” as a condition to signing the agreement. This was read by many to refer to Ms Tymoshenko’s incarceration.<br />
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In central Kiev, protesters began rebuilding their camps, after they were dismantled during clashes. At Independence Square there was scepticism that Mr Yanukovych would keep his word, and a determination to continue with the nation’s biggest protests since the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution.<br />
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Zoryan, a 31-year-old charity worker, said: “For me it looks again as if he is saying one thing to the West, one thing to his own people, and another thing to Russia.”</div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-69537472063166325512013-12-12T14:00:00.000+00:002013-12-18T21:39:39.313+00:00Edited appearance on Voice of Russia - Debating Russia: "There is no master plan, Ukraine is in limbo"http://voiceofrussia.com/uk/2013_12_12/Debating-Russia-There-is-no-master-plan-Ukraine-is-in-limbo-7569/Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-8225449662148965732013-12-11T22:26:00.000+00:002013-12-18T22:27:55.121+00:00Ukraine asks EU for €20bn in return for signing Association Agreement(As published in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-asks-eu-for-20bn-in-return-for-signing-association-agreement-8998714.html" target="_blank"><i>The Independent</i></a>)<br />
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<span class="storyTop " style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: none;">The Ukrainian government has asked the EU for €20 billion to sign an Association Agreement with the bloc, just hours after sending in thousands of special forces to destroy a pro-EU protest camp in the centre of the capital, Kiev.</span></div>
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This afternoon Prime Minister Azarov announced the government would be sending a delegation to Brussels to discuss new terms for signing the agreement, having failed to end a non-stop pro-EU rally that opposition leaders describe as a "revolution".</div>
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For the fourth week running Ukrainians had turned out in the tens and hundreds of thousands against a government decision to abandon the historic free trade and political co-operation agreement with the EU.</div>
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In an apparent display of contempt for European leaders, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych ordered police to clear demonstrators from Kiev's main square early this morning. The order was given during the visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, and shortly after she left the camp.</div>
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But President Yanukovych now appears to be losing his grip on power as he veers between Russia and the EU in a desperate bid for funds to stave off a deepening financial crisis in the country. According to <em style="outline: none;">Reuters</em>, Ukraine needs around $60 billion dollars to make debt repayments due next year.</div>
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Thousands of demonstrators resisted and eventually prevailed in an enormous shoving match with special forces tasked with clearing the square.</div>
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Yanukovych returned to negotiations with the EU High Representative during the afternoon in the face of strong international criticism.</div>
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US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed "disgust" at the decision to “meet peaceful protesters with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity.”</div>
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During the struggle government forces destroyed tents and barricades around the square before retreating at daybreak as tens of thousands of citizens rushed to the defence of demonstrators.</div>
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Police were also forced to abandon an attempt to reclaim the occupied City Hall as opposition activists used water hoses and fireworks against officers pinned between the building and an increasingly large and angry crowd.</div>
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By this afternoon, protesters had already rebuilt barricades and pitched new tents. Kiev taxi drivers announced a general strike in order to ferry more demonstrators to the city centre, and thousands of Ukrainians from the Western part of the country, which shares borders and ethnic ties with four EU countries, boarded opposition buses heading for the capital. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs told <em style="outline: none;">Interfax News Agency </em>that they would not rule out the possibility of using force against protesters again.</div>
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The EU had initially planned to sign the Agreement with Ukraine last month, and was shocked when President Yanukovych walked away from the negotiating table a week beforehand, citing overwhelming pressure from Moscow.</div>
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Alarmed at the prospect of ceding influence over its former Soviet satellite to the West, Russia introduced trade restrictions on Ukrainian imports and threatened to hike gas prices if Ukraine signed the Agreement.</div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-75178751215658542112013-12-11T10:00:00.000+00:002013-12-18T21:52:39.898+00:00Eyewitness account: Thousands of Ukrainian riot police officers in brutal overnight crackdown on Kiev protest<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; text-align: left;">(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eyewitness-account-thousands-of-ukrainian-riot-police-officers-in-brutal-overnight-crackdown-on-kiev-protest-8997185.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i>)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; text-align: left;">Thousands of riot police officers stormed a three-week old pro-Europe demonstration in the centre of Kiev on Wednesday morning, hacking their way through barricades and forcing back protesters who stood in their way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For weeks Ukrainian protesters have turned out in the tens of thousands against a government decision to abandon a historic free trade and political cooperation agreement with the EU. Their ranks grew to the hundreds of thousands when riot police savagely dispersed students at a pro-Europe protest in the early hours of 30 November.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a tremendous display of contempt for the European leaders he once courted, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych ordered police to destroy the protest camp during the visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, and shortly after she had left the camp.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A nearby church sounded alarm bells as battalions of riot police sealed off Maidan, Kiev’s main square, and priests led a prayer service as protesters linked arms to resist the assault. Women were asked to leave the square as men donned orange hard hats and surgical masks to protect against tear gas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Demonstrators chanted “we will not leave” and “Kiev, wake up” as they squared off against police and special forces in helmets, gas masks and body armour. The stand-off lasted almost an hour in temperatures well below freezing before the two sides clashed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Government forces assaulted through heavy smoke from flaming braziers, and to the sound of the national anthem being played from the opposition stage in the centre of the square. They formed huge columns to force back thousands of demonstrators, who attempted to stand their ground despite heavy snow and ice. For several hours an enormous scrummage ensued, with troops exerting a huge amount of effort to gain several yards, only to be pushed back. Dozens were injured as they slipped in the crush.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reinforcements arrived and police punched through opposition lines, allowing them to clear large parts of the square. Tents in the cleared areas were instantly torn apart, and personal belongings left behind were trashed. Workers from the city municipality destroyed barricades with electric saws.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Officers refrained from using batons, and resistance was, for the most part, peaceful. Periodic scuffles broke out, and while reporters observed a number of arrests being made, there were also unconfirmed reports that some of those arrested were later beaten in custody.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A more aggressive core of opposition supporters formed lines outside the two government buildings they had occupied, brandishing metal poles and wooden sticks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The US was quick to condemn the police action, with Secretary of State John Kerry expressing ‘disgust’ at the decision to “meet peaceful protesters with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He described the government response as “neither acceptable nor befitting a democracy”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The EU had planned to sign an Association Agreement with Ukraine last month, and was shocked when President Yanukovych walked away from the negotiating table a week beforehand, citing overwhelming pressure from Moscow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alarmed at the prospect of ceding influence over its former Soviet satellite to the West, Russia introduced trade restrictions on Ukrainian imports and threatened to hike gas prices if Ukraine signed the Agreement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having already turned their back on the prospect of European integration, President Yanukovych and his government now look set to reverse democratic progress made in Ukraine over the last decade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Monday President Yanukovych had said he wanted to defuse tensions, agreeing to separate talks with Baroness Ashton and three former Ukrainian Presidents on Tuesday. Yanukovych said he would sign the Agreement in March, and release a number of detained demonstrators.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But on Monday night, several outlying protest camps in the capital were cleared from the government quarter, an opposition headquarters stormed by armed police, and at least three independent or opposition news outlets raided. All the organisations had their electronic equipment confiscated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Demonstrators said they were concerned Ukraine could become like neighbouring Belarus, where any protest is quickly and often brutally repressed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having already survived a no-confidence vote, the government appears confident that it retains enough support among Ukraine’s powerful oligarchs and its eastern, pro-Russian regions, to snuff out the pro-Europe protests with force.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But Arseniy Yatseniuk, leading Yulia Tymoshenko’s opposition Batkivshchyna party while she is in prison, took a different view on the police assault. Retreating from Maidan to opposition headquarters, he said that “the President is an idiot”, and had only inflamed tensions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As more and more Ukrainians flocked to the defence of the only partially cleared square on Wednesday morning, it looked as though Yanukovych had indeed miscalculated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Responding to the continued closure of nearby metro stations, Kiev taxi drivers announced a general strike in order to ferry people, free of charge, to Maidan. By daybreak police on the square began to look heavily outnumbered by an increasingly angry crowd.</span></div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-118145259509912112013-12-10T22:13:00.000+00:002013-12-18T22:13:47.645+00:00Appearance on HuffPost Live WorldBrief <span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Ukraine segment starts at 18.27 minutes, finishing 27 minutes.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><a href="http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/worldbrief-with-ase-december-10/529e298702a7604026000125" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/worldbrief-with-ase-december-10/529e298702a7604026000125</a>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-36884888319904184152013-12-10T22:07:00.001+00:002013-12-28T06:57:01.856+00:00International community must take effective action to prevent Ukraine descending into authoritarianism<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Maxim Tucker, Kiev, 10 December 2013</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Ukraine woke up to International Human Rights day Tuesday
on the brink of a precipice.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Determined not to be ousted from office, President
Yanukovych and his government appear to be making their second dramatic U-turn
of the month. Turning their back first on the prospect of European integration,
they now look set to reverse democratic progress made in Ukraine over the last
decade. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Not content with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/ukraines-divide-over-europe-is-not-just-between-east-and-west-but-big-business-versus-the-individual-8969745.html"><span style="text-decoration: none;">buying up
independent media outlets in the country and limiting opportunities for free
assembly</span></a>, they have committed to ending a three-week long ‘revolution’
in Ukraine with harder, less subtle methods.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">On Monday President Yanukovych said he wanted to
defuse tensions, agreeing to separate talks with EU High Representative for
Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and three former Ukrainian Presidents on Tuesday.
The ex-Presidents talked vaguely about reaching a compromise with the country’s
opposition, who have led hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets every
week.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">But overnight, peaceful protest camps in the capital
have been cleared from the government quarter,<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/riot-police-storm-offices-of-ukrainian-opposition-party-in-kiev-8994205.html"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> an
opposition headquarters stormed</span></a> by armed police on the
flimsiest of pretexts, and at least <a href="http://en.rsf.org/ukraine-raids-on-three-opposition-media-as-09-12-2013,45584.html"><span style="text-decoration: none;">three
independent or opposition news outlets raided</span></a>. All the organisations
have had their electronic equipment confiscated.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Protesters originally turned out against a government
decision to refuse a historic free trade and political cooperation agreement
with the EU, but their ranks grew exponentially when riot police savagely
dispersed a student protest in the early hours of November 30th. Images of
bruised and bloodied students galvanised a nation that had become increasingly
apathetic after the 2004 Orange Revolution led to greater freedom of
expression, but failed to end widespread corruption and abuse of power. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-proeu-protests-police-forced-to-flee-as-demonstrators-take-over-central-kiev-8975954.html"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Over 350,000
people turned out on December 1st to condemn the police action</span></a>.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Demonstrators said they were concerned Ukraine could
become like neighbouring Belarus, where any protest is quickly and often
brutally repressed.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">With emotions running high, December 1st ended in the
occupation of Kiev City Hall, and violent clashes between police and far-right
groups. Riot police retaliated by <a href="http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/179841.html"><span style="text-decoration: none;">beating
provocateurs, peaceful demonstrators and journalists indiscriminately</span></a>.
Those actions prompted a vote of no-confidence in parliament. The
government survived the vote, and the following weekend well over 500,000 took
to the streets. The opposition began a blockade of government buildings, and
called for snap elections. Some protesters even <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/goodbye-lenin-protesters-raise-the-stakes-at-kiev-rally-as-they-topple-statue-of-former-communist-leader-8991596.html"><span style="text-decoration: none;">destroyed a
statue of Lenin</span></a>, smashing it with a sledgehammer after toppling it.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">While undoubtedly true that a number of protesters
have broken the law and hold extremist right-wing views, they do not represent
the vast majority. International leaders should give short thrift to the
government’s attempt to demonise the entire opposition as extremists bent on a
violent coup.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Both US and EU diplomats have already made a number of
statements condemning the violent dispersal of protesters and warning against
further such actions. But after Monday night’s clampdown, they should be
ratcheting up the rhetoric. Yanukovych and his allies don’t understand hints
and diplomatic subtlety, they need consequences spelled out to them. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Ukraine's international partners must be clear that the crackdown on
peaceful protesters, opposition groups and journalists ends now, before it
becomes routine. And if it does not end, the considerable assets the President
and Cabinet have invested in abroad will be frozen. Travel bans introduced.
The international life of luxury they are so desperate to cling onto will come
to an abrupt end.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-27682978460889322922013-12-01T22:00:00.000+00:002013-12-10T22:13:32.109+00:00‘It’s not a rally, it’s a revolution’(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-proeu-protests-police-forced-to-flee-as-demonstrators-take-over-central-kiev-8975954.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i>)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNRH45ZTNKoU2ZM6vLAMijl955NC0Tk66dMGGePGk_FKi7e-aSvsM47zBE-xeEejbgNRjxs5lpD867lMiv9jY30X3seFH134kZFw1Pje39f09YxQwuhvklaiJm2j1kLsfFGoxeHHCzkxTL/s1600/Independent+2+Dec+p31.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNRH45ZTNKoU2ZM6vLAMijl955NC0Tk66dMGGePGk_FKi7e-aSvsM47zBE-xeEejbgNRjxs5lpD867lMiv9jY30X3seFH134kZFw1Pje39f09YxQwuhvklaiJm2j1kLsfFGoxeHHCzkxTL/s320/Independent+2+Dec+p31.JPG" width="258" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLcMOJZBJdQx-Ehqi4WUGoQZZEiDn9RJkWZdFsaFtEt5zrFimrDE9OVcblCED0AipGgF8wtUDkVCJwIzRQcqUXfNJKxVHh4gvltXBDi_nvWq3G-cKr2K7_mUDfkE0SyAwzTqjf3Yx9oAmB/s1600/Independent+2+Dec+p32.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLcMOJZBJdQx-Ehqi4WUGoQZZEiDn9RJkWZdFsaFtEt5zrFimrDE9OVcblCED0AipGgF8wtUDkVCJwIzRQcqUXfNJKxVHh4gvltXBDi_nvWq3G-cKr2K7_mUDfkE0SyAwzTqjf3Yx9oAmB/s320/Independent+2+Dec+p32.JPG" width="261" /></a></div>
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<span class="storyTop " style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: none;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Kiev on Sunday, calling for the resignation of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his government in the biggest demonstrations in the capital since the “Orange Revolution” of nine years ago.</span></span></div>
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An estimated 350,000 people from all over Ukraine had come to Kiev for what was supposed to be a peaceful opposition rally calling on President Yanukovych’s government to stand down and for new elections to be held. Dozens were injured when riot police used tear gas and truncheons to repel several hundred protesters who tried to storm the presidential administration building with a bulldozer.</div>
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Tensions had been building in the capital all week following his refusal to sign a free trade and political integration agreement with the EU. The Association Agreement would have seen Ukraine take a historic step closer to the West and away from Russia. It was due to be signed at a crucial summit in Vilnius on Friday, but Ukraine backed out at the last minute after what EU leaders described as “Russian pressure”. Mr Yanukovych’s U-turn has highlighted an old East-West tug-of-war over Ukraine, which shares borders and ethnic ties with Russia and four EU countries.<br />
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Authorities had already cleared peaceful pro-European protesters from Kiev’s central Independence Square, also known as Maidan, in the early hours of Saturday morning. Riot police sealed off Maidan with metal barricades, but hastily abandoned them on Sunday in the face of overwhelming odds. As protesters reclaimed the square, others stormed the mayor’s office. Chants of “revolution” resounded across a sea of yellow and blue Ukrainian and EU flags on the square. The crowd was by far the largest since the protests began more than a week ago. Many of the demonstrators had travelled to Kiev from western Ukraine, where pro-EU sentiment is particularly strong.</div>
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Speaking at the demonstration from the roof of a bus, opposition leaders called for a nationwide strike to begin today in a bid to advance a “peaceful revolution”.</div>
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“Our plan is clear: It’s not a demonstration, it’s not a reaction. It’s a revolution,” said Yuri Lutsenko, one of the leaders of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, former Minister of Internal Affairs and political prisoner.<br />
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Vitalii Klitschko, heavyweight boxing champion of the world and candidate for Ukraine’s 2015 Presidential elections, told the crowd: “We want a normal Ukraine without corruption, with a police force that protects rather than beats people, and good salaries. If the authorities are not ready to provide us with rules, we will change the authorities.”</div>
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Opposition leaders are seeking to exploit the cracks that have appeared in the Yanukovych regime following the resignation of his chief of staff and leading party spokesperson, hoping that ruling party MPs will defect to the opposition. “If we keep this up for one week, we will have a majority in parliament, and call for new elections,” said Mr Lutsenko. “Here we are trying to fix the shortcomings from 2004” he said.</div>
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Although opposition leaders stressed that the demonstration should remain peaceful, images of Saturday’s savage crackdown had emotions running high. An angry crowd of several hundred youths wielding rocks, steel pipes and pepper spray diverted from the main crowd at Maidan and headed for the Presidential buildings. Stun grenade explosions were audible, prompting peaceful but curious demonstrators to go and find out what was going on. Many became caught up in the violence.</div>
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Alexander, 25, said he joined the rally “to peacefully protest against the police violence that took place on Maidan, and to support a European choice for Ukraine”.</div>
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He went with some friends to the presidential administration to see what was happening: “It was horrible, a lot of blood, gas and stun grenades. Then the Berkut [riot police] charged, beating people indiscriminately. We fled, but others stayed, throwing rocks and stones.”</div>
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Anxious that their peaceful revolution would not descend into a violent one, opposition leaders formed a human chain to separate police and provocateurs, to the relief of peaceful demonstrators. Tanya, 32, told The Independent: “I don’t support the violence. I’m sure we can achieve our goals peacefully, and only if we remain peaceful.”</div>
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Trying to defuse tensions before Sunday’s rally, Yanukovych said he would do everything in his power to speed up moves toward the EU. But he repeated the need to balance European integration with national interests.</div>
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The EU agreement had been eagerly anticipated by Ukrainians who want their country of 45 million people to break out of Moscow’s orbit.</div>
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Opinion surveys in recent months showed about 45 per cent of Ukrainians supporting closer integration with the EU and a third or less favouring closer ties with Russia.</div>
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Moscow tried to block the deal with the EU by banning some Ukrainian imports and threatening more trade sanctions. A 2009 dispute between Kiev and Moscow on gas prices resulted in a three-week cut-off of gas to Ukraine.</div>
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Sunday’s demonstration was the largest since the mass protests of the 2004 Orange Revolution, when tens of thousands came to the square nightly for weeks and set up a vast tent camp on the main street leading to the square.</div>
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Those protests forced the annulment of a fraud-tainted presidential election in which Yanukovych was shown with the most votes. A rerun of the election was ordered, and Yanukovych lost to Western-leaning reformist Viktor Yushchenko.</div>
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Mr Yanukovych was elected president five years later, narrowly defeating then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leading figure of the Orange Revolution.</div>
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Ms Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2011 for abuse of office, a case that the West has widely criticised as political revenge. The EU had set Ms Tymoshenko’s release, or at least her freedom to go to Germany for treatment of a severe back problem, as a key criterion for signing the association pact with Ukraine.</div>
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In a statement released from her hospital cell on Sunday, Ms Tymoshenko called on Ukrainians to carry on protesting: “I appeal to all Ukrainian people to resist and rise up against Yanukovych and his dictatorship,” she wrote. </div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-2377624050402640272013-11-28T15:00:00.000+00:002013-12-04T23:04:35.160+00:00Ukraine’s divide over Europe is not just between East and West, but big business versus the individual<span style="color: #333333; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/ukraines-divide-over-europe-is-not-just-between-east-and-west-but-big-business-versus-the-individual-8969745.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For Ukraine’s businessmen, integration no longer means gaining a new market, but losing a most important one</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the city of Dnipropetrovsk, eastern Ukraine, a small group of demonstrators huddle round to listen to one of their speakers. He’s reading the resolution passed by close to a hundred thousand of their fellow Ukrainians during an enormous rally in the capital on Sunday.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">It’s dark, and freezing cold. The organisers have put up tents and hung banners. They’re</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-divided-as-tens-of-thousands-protest-against-governments-scrapped-eu-deal-8960577.html" style="border-bottom-style: none; color: rgb(0, 86, 137) !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">protesting the government’s decision</a><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">to abandon an Association Agreement with the EU, which would have brought Ukraine into the European fold with a comprehensive free trade treaty and greater political integration. A number of policemen stand around, watching wistfully.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">Suddenly, thirty athletic men in masks and leather jackets descend on the demonstration. They tear down the tents and banners. They assault the speaker and anyone that gets in their way, raining punches and kicks down on protesters they have already knocked over. Equally suddenly, the police are nowhere to be seen. The hooligans continue their dirty work for</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVaNNjWUdh8&feature=youtu.be&t=2m" style="border-bottom-style: none; color: rgb(0, 86, 137) !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">several minutes</a><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">before fleeing.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dnipropetrovsk is Ukraine’s fourth largest city with a population of just over a million. It is a heavy industry powerhouse, manufacturing aircraft, tractors and refrigerators. Most of these will be sold to Russia, still Ukraine’s largest trading partner. Appalled by the prospect of ceding influence over its former Soviet satellite to Europe, Russia has threatened a trade blockade of Ukraine if it decides to sign the agreement.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So for Ukraine’s eastern businessmen, European integration no longer means gaining a new market, but losing its most important one. And it is these businessmen, with their multi-million dollar fortunes, that hold sway over a government ranked as one of the most corrupt in the world. Indeed, in many cases these businessmen actually are the government. Little wonder then that a suspiciously well-organised gang of thugs could break up a pro-Europe rally under the very noses of the police.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the pro-European demonstrators attacked in Dnipropetrovsk, and the tens of thousands across the country that have braved rain, snow and tear gas everyday this week, Europe is much more than just a market. It means an official commitment to democracy and human rights reform. It means putting a stop to the government’s gradual backslide towards authoritarianism.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the run up to Sunday’s summit at Vilnius, where Ukraine had been expected to sign the Association Agreement, a number of major media outlets have changed hands, and editors and high-profile journalists suddenly sacked. Media watchdogs warn that this is part of a concerted campaign to stifle free speech before Presidential elections in 2015.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earlier this month Ukraine’s East European Petrol and Energy company purchased Ukrainian Media Holdings, which owns some 50 internet, television and radio brands, in a reported $340 million dollar deal. Soon afterwards there was a mass exodus of editors and journalists from two of their major publications, previously renowned for exposing corruption and criticizing government.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to The Global Post, journalists from one of the publications, Forbes Ukraine, were told they could no longer pursue stories about lawmakers from Yanukovych’s ruling Party of Regions.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">Unlike his less subtle neighbours in Belarus and Azerbaijan,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/globalpost-ukraine-hit-by-media-censorship-and-cyber-attacks-332401.html" style="border-bottom-style: none; color: rgb(0, 86, 137) !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">President Yanukovych</a><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">and his businessman backers have refrained from clamping down on dissent in a brutal and obvious fashion. Rather than banning pro-European demonstrations from Maidan, Kiev’s main square and birthplace of the 2004 Orange Revolution, they build an enormous Christmas tree and an ice rink there. Rather than shut down media outlets promoting a point of view they disagree with, they buy them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">But this will only last as long as Yanukovych still wants to keep the door to Europe open. If that door is shut, we can expect to see far less restraint. And if it is shut during the summit at Vilnius on Friday, it may well be that this weekend’s demonstrations are not so peaceful.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"> </span></span>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-9250921965270745102013-11-24T18:00:00.000+00:002013-11-28T12:02:52.779+00:00Back to the streets(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-divided-as-tens-of-thousands-protest-against-governments-scrapped-eu-deal-8960577.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i>)<br />
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<span class="storyTop " style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It started quietly and sombrely on Sunday, on a misty morning in a small park opposite one of Ukraine’s oldest universities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Earlier this week the country’s opposition, media and civil-society activists had come together to call for mass protest against a government decision to abandon a historic trade and political integration agreement with the European Union. The agreement would have seen the former Soviet state move a step closer to the West and away from overbearing Russian influence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />And Ukraine responded. By noon the surrounding streets were clogged.<br />Clearly, a bigger venue was required. Tens of thousands of demonstrators headed for Maidan, Kiev’s main square and the scene of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution. Nine years on, almost to the day, the square retains its association with dissent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />They marched slowly but with increasing confidence as their numbers swelled. A huge Ukrainian flag, followed by a huge EU flag, swept past a statue of Vladimir Lenin and onto Khreschatyk, Kiev’s eight-lane central thoroughfare. Protesters clad in blue and yellow, the colour of both EU and Ukraine flags, sang as they moved down the street. Despite the rain, all were clearly elated at the scale of the demonstration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />A group of young students from a Kiev university sang traditional Ukrainian songs as they formed a marching column. Three of them held aloft a banner which read, in English, ‘No Putin No Cry’.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />They, like many other Ukrainians, believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to reconstitute the Russian-led Soviet Union by creating a rival trading bloc and compelling former Soviet countries to join.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />It was, according to Ukrainian leaders, Russian pressure that forced Kiev to abandon a deal with the EU that had been years in the making. The decision was made shortly after President Yanukovych travelled to Moscow for secret talks earlier this month.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Threats of a Russia-Ukraine trade war and hiked gas prices have been cited as the main reasons for cancelling negotiations by a government ranked as one of the 30 most corrupt in the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />But for ordinary Ukrainians, association with Europe means much more than potential profits or losses.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />By one o’clock, over a hundred thousand demonstrators from all over Ukraine had gathered in and around the appropriately named ‘European Square’ to listen to the speeches of those who had called them there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />“Do you want to live in the Soviet Union?” Irena Karpa, a well-known Ukrainian musician, asked the crowd. “No!” came the response.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />But there was particularly loud applause for Vitalii Portnikov, a journalist, when he said: “Europe is not about money, it’s about human rights, rights for everybody.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />This sentiment was echoed by a number of protesters who spoke to <em style="outline: none;">The Independent</em>. Anatolii, a 43 year-old Kiev resident, said: “Everyone who wants to live in a better Ukraine should be here today. This is about people coming together to achieve one aim – to be free, independent and proud of our country.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Ostap, 30, left the city of Lviv, some 370 miles from Kiev, at 2am on Saturday morning with three friends to join the demonstration. “We’re conscientious patriots and supporting Ukraine, we’re ready to defend our rights – and obligations” they said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Oleksei and Irina, a couple in their late fifties, had travelled from Poltava region, 120 miles from Kiev, and said they were determined to demonstrate for “a European choice for Ukraine”. They joined thousands of others who raised their hands when asked to vote for President Yanukovych’s impeachment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Alarmed at the size of the protest, the government appears to be taking increasingly authoritarian steps to prevent a repeat of 2004’s peaceful revolution. Current President Viktor Yanukovych saw his then fraudulent election victory overturned that year by peaceful demonstrations, although he was elected again in 2010.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />None of Ukraine’s mainstream television channels showed footage of the protest, and instead reported on a pro-government demonstration across town. Although the number of demonstrators there was no more than 1,000, a police spokesperson claimed both demonstrations were ‘similar in size’.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Meanwhile, heavyweight world boxing champion and opposition Presidential candidate Vitalii Klitschko found his plane diverted as he attempted to return to Kiev from a business trip.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />A spokesperson for his party said that he had been forced to land in a city several hundred miles from Kiev and the authorities had refused to allow him to leave the plane.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Riot police also used tear-gas to disperse some protesters who gathered outside government buildings. A police spokesperson said they had attempted to storm the Cabinet of Ministers’ building.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The sheer size of Sunday’s protests will give a lift to European officials, some of whom still hope to salvage the Association Agreement. It looked as though Putin had managed to completely outmanoeuvre the bloc by undoing agreements with both Armenia and Ukraine ahead of a crucial summit in Vilnius next week, where the EU had hoped to expand its influence eastwards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />They were handed a further boost on Friday when jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko called on European leaders to sign an agreement without her release. Her imprisonment had been a sticking point for both sides, with the EU demanding her release as part of a move towards ending ‘selective justice’ in Ukraine.</span></span></div>
Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-12105855778058463172013-11-21T12:11:00.000+00:002013-11-28T12:15:26.778+00:00Ukraine chooses Russia over EU in trade deal<br />
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(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eurasian-union-ukraine-chooses-to-strengthen-ties-with-russia-and-reject-historic-trade-deal-with-eu-8955407.html" target="_blank">The Independent.</a> </i>Charlotte McDonald-Gibson and Maxim Tucker)</div>
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The Ukrainian government has stunned the European Union by announcing it was stepping back from a trade deal with the bloc and would instead pursue greater ties with Russia, hours after refusing to meet EU demands to free jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With eight days to go until a summit in Lithuania which was meant to mark Ukraine’s historic shift away from its former Soviet ruler and towards the West, lawmakers in Kiev rejected draft legislation which would have allowed Ms Tymoshenko to go to Germany for medical treatment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Stefan Fule, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, was preparing to get on a plane to Kiev to try to salvage the deal, the Ukrainian government announced it was suspending preparations for the signing ceremony in Vilnius. Instead, the country would “renew active dialogue” with Russia, which has been pressuring Kiev to join its own trading bloc and help to form a “Eurasian Union”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Ukrainian energy minister, Yuri Boiko, said the decision was based on the best economic interests of his country, but Sweden’s Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, blamed Kremlin tactics. “Politics of brutal pressure evidently works,” he tweeted. Mr Fule cancelled his trip, and an EU official said they regretted the decision of the Ukrainian government.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sudden U-turn was a serious blow to the bloc, which had been hoping to expand its influence eastwards and launch agreements on closer trade and political ties with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia next week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Russia – desperate to keep the former Soviet states within its political orbit – responded with retaliatory trade measures. Moscow banned imports of some Moldovan and Georgian wines and Ukrainian chocolates. Fear of disruption of gas supplies also hung over Russia’s neighbours. Armenia was the first to bow to the pressure, announcing in August that it would instead be joining a Russian free trade area know as the Customs Union, which consists of Moscow allies Belarus and Kazakhstan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While some polls show that the majority of Ukrainians support greater integration with the European Union, it appeared that the bloc’s condition that President Viktor Yanukovych reach a compromise which would allow his bitter political rival to go free was also a demand too far.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The former face of Ukraine’s 2004 “Orange Revolution” was jailed for seven years in 2011 for abuse of office during her stint as prime minister. The EU had made clear that it saw the sentence as “selective justice” and had been working with the Ukrainian government on a face-saving solution which would involve her being transferred to Germany.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Russia was making no such demands, and President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson put out a statement welcoming Kiev’s “desire to improve and develop trade and economic co-operation”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opposition leader Arseny Yatsenyuk warned that abandoning the deal was “treason” and could be grounds for impeachment. The opposition plans a pro-European demonstration in Kiev on Sunday.</span></div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-15231804794542741122013-11-18T17:41:00.000+00:002016-03-24T20:21:48.805+00:00The President - or just a puppet on a string?<span style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: "helvetica";"></span><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">(Extract published in </span><i style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/muchreduced-role-for-georgias-new-president-giorgi-margvelashvili-8945518.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a>)</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;">The new Georgian premier owes his position to the state's billionaire Prime Minister</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Tbilisi, 16 November 2013</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">When Giorgi Margvelashvili is sworn as Georgia’s new President on Sunday, he'll be stepping into the rather large and controversial shoes of the outgoing leader Mikhail Saakashvili.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Having whipped what had been regarded as a corrupt and failing state into shape, Saakashvili used his authoritarian tenure to transform Georgia into a growing economy. The government functions, and the streets are safer.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Mr Margvelashvili, however, will inherit a downsized version of the Georgian Presidency, wielding far fewer powers than his predecessor. According to a new constitution approved last year, Margvelashvili will hold ultimate control of Georgia’s armed forces, and play an important role in its foreign policy.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">But the real ruler of Georgia will be the eccentric and often irritable billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgia’s ruling coalition ‘Georgian Dream’, and current Prime Minister.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">It is the Prime Minister’s office that the president’s powers will be transferred to when the new constitution takes effect on Sunday, and it is he who has catapulted Margvelashvili to the presidency.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">By all accounts the 44-year old Margvelashvili is a charming man. While working as an academic and philosopher </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">he won over the Georgian Dream founder, who he considers “a good friend”. Affability appears to be his main qualification for the Presidency – with only a year’s experience in cabinet, he is a political novice.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Earlier this year he was hand-picked by Mr. Ivanishvili as the coalition’s Presidential candidate for last month’s elections. He swept to a landslide victory on the party ticket, winning 62% of the vote.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The incoming President is enthusiastic about the part his friend has played in his success. “His role… in my overwhelming victory cannot be underestimated”, he announced while hosting </span><i style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">The Independent</i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"> at the Georgian Dream party office in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The depth of their relationship had become clear earlier, when it took an hour with his photographer and press team to find a photo of him in action without the 57 year-old billionaire. The one that features above has had Mr. Ivanishvili cropped out.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">That the President is close to the leader of parliament is not necessarily a bad thing. Things become a little bit more complicated though at the end of the month, when Mr. Ivanishvili will step down as Prime Minister and retires, in theory, from politics.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Ivanishvili’s prime ministerial venture appears to have served solely to oust Saaksashvili and his party from power, after the former President led Georgia into a kamikaze war with Russia in 2008, oversaw the arrest of opposition members who became too outspoken, and was tainted by allegations of systematic rape and torture in Georgia’s prisons.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The outgoing Prime Minister nominated 31 year-old </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Irakli Gabriashvil</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">i as his successor, telling reporters, without a hint of irony:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">“</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Such a nomination happened in a democratic country; none of [the] team members expressed anything else save ovations and everyone was absolutely happy. This is very important and I am also happy that I have made a correct choice."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Ivanishvili’s nominee</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">started in government as its youngest member when he became Interior Minister in late 2012. Another political unknown, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Gabriashvil</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">i had worked for the current premier since 2005 as director of his charity foundation Cartu.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The young minister immediately set about bringing charges against his predecessor in the Interior Ministry and about twenty other senior officials from the previous government.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The introduction of two inexperienced politicians into Georgia’s two foremost political posts, solely on the basis of their relationship with Mr. Ivanishivili, has caused consternation amongst many Georgian political commentators, who fear the country will soon be run by an unaccountable billionaire businessman from a luxury mansion overlooking his own private zoo.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">So will Ivanishvili influence the new President’s decisions? “Of course he will”. Mr. Margvelashvili is nothing if not honest.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">At times his admiration for the coalition founder verges on adulation. He explains that although Ivanishvili “has broken all paradigms”, he does not want to become “a messiah.” So instead, President Margvelashvli, Prime Minister Gabriashvili, and mysterious benefactor Ivanishvili will form a wholly untransparent trinity.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The President-Elect does little to assuage investors’ concerns about lack of official leadership and therefore stability in Georgia, which have been plaguing Georgia’s economy ever since Prime Minister Ivanishvili announced he would step down.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Who will hold the coalition together? Who will become the new leader of the Georgian Dream? With less than a fortnight to go before Mr. Ivanishvili is due to leave office, Mr. Margvelashvili elucidates: “We will observe that.”</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Little wonder then, that Georgia’s economic growth rate has fallen from 7.5% to 1.3% in the year since Georgian Dream took office. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Paata Sheshelidze, President of the New Economic School of Georgia, believes the climate of uncertainty extends beyond political leadership.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">“They said everything that was done before, was wrong. Therefore, we should change everything. The government’s idea was to break down everything and make a brave new world.”</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">According to the New Economic School of Georgia, large businesses who prospered under the previous government have been targeted for investigation and their assets frozen. Shopkeepers who raised prices, contradicting the government’s pledge to keep prices down, arrested.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Unfortunately even the best intentioned Georgian Dream reforms appear to have damaged the Georgian economy. For example, all Georgian schoolchildren now get free textbooks. But these are produced under a single state contract, causing the collapse of several publishing houses that had previously sold textbooks.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The New Economic School of Georgia says that Georgian Dream's measures to protect the Georgian market – such as banning the import of foreign eggs, have in fact hurt Georgia’s poorest and most vulnerable, by pushing up the prices of staple goods.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">The discussion with President-Elect </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Margvelashvili</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"> takes place in the heart of old Tbilisi, a charming riddle of cobbled roads, intricate wooden terraces and ancient stone masonry. The Georgian Dream offices are right opposite the house of the Georgian Patriarch, the head of the country’s incredibly powerful Orthodox Church.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">When it comes to religion, there is yet more confusion in store for Margvelashvili as he tries to navigate the inevitable clash between centuries old tradition and the modern European values Georgia aspires to. Georgian Dream enjoy strong support from the Orthodox Church – despite the fact that the President-Elect lives with a partner he is not married to.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Strong homophobic sentiment in the church boiled over into horrific scenes of violence in May this year, as thousands of church members, led by Orthodox priests, brushed past a police cordon with ease and assaulted a small group of people with rocks and fists as they protested against homophobia.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">While the President-Elect is clear about violence being unacceptable (unless conducted by the state in a measured fashion) he is far less clear about his government’s obligation to tackle hate speech and discrimination.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">“Hate speech is unacceptable – but Christianity existed for the last 20 centuries and… they also have the right of free expression.”</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Does that mean they have the right to hate speech? Margvelashvili appears visibly torn as he wrestles with the concept.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">“As I told you hate speech is unacceptable, but you cannot prohibit your own… if we go in depth hate speech is essentially non-Christian so… but there is Christianity there is Christian morale, and people that believe in that morale should have the right to express their own thoughts as well.” </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">Probably the President's greatest challenge will be dealing with one Vladimir Putin. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;">Russia’s recent reaction to the prospect of European integration for Ukraine, Armenia and Moldova has been aggression and coercion - bullying with gas prices and trade barriers, then cajoling with loan offers, discounts and admission to its own free trade area.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;"> </span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;">Georgian Dream have decided that Georgia will no longer antagonise its enormous northern neighbour, and will try to rebuild relations with them. However, their strategy for balanced relations with Russia and the EU is widely criticised as naïve.</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">“[We aim] to describe to our international partners and to show Russians that by violating Georgia’s national interests there is no whatsoever benefit for Russia, but the opposite. We will try to show neither NATO nor European membership is a threat to Russia, Georgia [will] prosper as part of the European family, national stability for Georgia will create better opportunities for economic and political development for Russia”.</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;">The future President's response to how Georgia would react to Russian hostility towards European integration, and how Georgia would choose if forced to between NATO and Russia?</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">“I’m not in a position to discuss the specifics. You are interviewing a President, not a Foreign Minister.”</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;">It is not just political commentators then, who are struggling to grasp how Georgia’s new triumvirate will function. So too is at least one of its members.</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px;">Mr. Margvelashvili’s brave new world starts on 17 November.</span></span><br />
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-16184604262745986262013-10-18T00:00:00.000+01:002013-11-05T18:58:08.613+00:00Moscow enlists volunteer militia to clear city of illegal migrants<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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(As published in <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/moscow-enlists-volunteer-militia-to-clear-city-of-illegal-migrants-8890085.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i>)</div>
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Moscow police will enlist the help of a volunteer militia to sweep the streets for illegal migrants, police chief Anatoly Yakunin said today, following the worst race riots in the city in years.</div>
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The riots were sparked when a man of Azerbaijani appearance stabbed to death ethnic Russian Yegor Shcherbakov in the Biryulyovo district of Moscow last Thursday as he was out walking with his girlfriend.</div>
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Russian authorities plan to hold operation 'Signal' every Friday, raiding apartment buildings and workplaces known to be frequented by immigrants across the city, particularly those from Azerbaijan and the Caucasus region.</div>
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The enormous nature of the task will require "the entire apparatus of the Central Office of Main Control, the office of Internal Control of Administrative Districts, private security companies and voluntary civil guards" Mr Yakunin said.</div>
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Azerbaijani nationalist group the "Karabakh Liberation Organisation' have threatened retaliation against ethnic Russians living in Azerbaijan.</div>
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According to Azerbaijani news portal "Haqqin.az", the group wrote to the Russian Embassy in Baku stating that "If attacks on Azerbaijanis" in Russia do not end, then "adequate measures" will be taken against Russians living in Azerbaijan.</div>
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Their statement followed the release of footage which appears to show handcuffed Azerbaijani citizen Orkhan Zeynalov being assaulted by police officers before being transferred to pre-trial detention face down in a police helicopter with a bag over his head.</div>
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Police appear to punch, kick and strike a bruised and bloody Mr Zeynalov with police batons in full view of the camera crew, who are allowed to accompany the suspect as he travels under an officer's feet lying in the bottom of a police van, then in a police helicopter with a bag over his head.</div>
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Mr Zeynalov was arrested on Tuesday, accused of Yegor Shcherbakov's murder. In the video police appear to try to force Mr Zeynalov into confessing to the camera as he lies in the grass. At a Moscow court hearing on Thursday he told a judge police had arrested the wrong man. Police later justified their actions by saying he had resisted arrest.</div>
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Yegor Shcherbakov's murder caused mass protests against non-Slavic immigrants in Biryulyovo district, which quickly turned violent. Participants broke into a local vegetable warehouse where many immigrants work, trashing produce and brawling with police on the streets outside.</div>
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Protesters blame immigrants for crime in the area and believe they undercut the pay of Russian employees by working illegally.</div>
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Moscow based Azerbaijani film-maker and one time Presidential hopeful Rustam Ibragimbekov said immigrants were in a "difficult situation".</div>
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"They [Russian authorities] carry this [immigration policy] out in such a way that those coming to the country looking for work are placed in a difficult situation. They have no opportunities, they live in bad conditions and as a result crimes like this occur".</div>
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Rioting continued last Sunday, with angry protesters attempting to set fire to a shopping mall and smashing windows. Some 380 people were detained in relation to the disturbances as police battled to restore order in the district.</div>
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Russian authorities seem eager to placate nationalist groups, arresting over a thousand illegal immigrants in night-time raids on Monday evening, and taking the unusual step of allowing national TV to film and broadcast ill-treatment of Orkhan Zeynalov.</div>
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However, ethnic tensions continue to build in Biryulyovo, with Reuters reporting Wednesday that police had found the body of an ethnic Uzbek there, apparently killed in a race-related attack.</div>
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Moscow authorities have consequently banned a nationalist rally planned for October 19 on the other side of Moscow, telling organisers that under the circumstances police would not be able to guarantee the safety of participants. The rally's organizer, Dmitry Dyomushkin, is the former head of the 'Slavic Union' far-right group, banned in 2010 as an extremist organization.</div>
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The Azerbaijani government has yet to comment on Mr. Zeynalov's arrest and treatment.</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-90271069507055686052013-10-17T17:16:00.000+01:002013-10-17T17:22:08.195+01:00EU hands Ukraine extended deadline for Yulia Tymoshenko release in last-ditch effort to secure her release<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12px;">(</span>As published in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-hands-ukraine-extended-deadline-for-yulia-tymoshenko-release-in-lastditch-effort-to-secure-her-release-8884649.html"><i>The Independent</i></a><i>)</i></div>
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The European Union has given Ukrainian authorities a further month to free ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a last-ditch effort to secure her release before a crucial political summit in late November.</div>
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Former European Parliament President Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski were on Tuesday expected to present a final report on their mission to address the issue of “selective justice” in Ukraine, but requested more time to secure a Presidential pardon for Ms Tymoshenko before doing so.</div>
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European leaders describe Ms Tymoshenko’s seven-year sentence in 2011 for abuse of office as “politically-motivated” and have repeatedly demanded her release ahead of the Vilnius summit, where Ukraine is expected to take a momentous step away from the influence of Russia and towards the West by signing an Association Agreement with the EU. </div>
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Rights groups have said Ms Tymoshenko’s ministerial role in a gas deal with Russia should not have been considered a criminal offence.</div>
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Yet the Ukrainian authorities appear determined to keep Tymoshenko behind bars. Justice Minister Olena Lukash told Interfax news agency on Tuesday that the President has no “legal basis” to pardon Ms Tymoshenko.</div>
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Mr Cox and Mr Kwaśniewski subsequently made a clear statement to the EU’s Conference of Presidents that Ukraine has so far failed to fulfil commitments made to the EU on the issue:</div>
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“In our opinion, these conditions, especially as regards Yulia Tymoshenko, still remain to be fulfilled. After 16 months and 22 missions, we conclude at this point in time that further work is required to ensure compliance.”</div>
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Mr Cox and Mr Kwaśniewski’s request for more time came despite an apparent breakthrough earlier this month when Ms Tymoshenko agreed that she would accept a pardon on grounds of ill-health, rather than hold out for her conviction to be overturned. Ms Tymoshenko is currently undergoing treatment in a prison hospital for a back problem, and requires surgery.</div>
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She said in a statement “for the sake of a successful Vilnius [summit] and successful Ukraine, for the sake of a historic and crucial, agreement with the EU, I am ready to accept this proposal” – leaving the ball firmly in the court of President Viktor Yanukovych.</div>
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The Cox and Kwaśniewski report, now due just days before the summit begins on 28 November, will heavily influence the EU’s decision on whether to sign a ground-breaking political and trade agreement with Ukraine. Rights groups have expressed concerns that the EU may dilute its demands for reforms in Ukraine, and for Ms Tymoshenko’s release, in order to sign the deal at Vilnius.</div>
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The EU-Ukraine Association agreement would guarantee Ukraine free trade access to European markets in exchange for democratic and human rights reform. It would see Europe embrace the former Soviet Republic and move the country out from the overbearing shadow of neighbouring Russia, currently its largest trading partner.</div>
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to block the agreement by threatening “dire consequences” for Ukrainian goods in Russia should Ukraine sign the Association Agreement. The two countries also continue to bicker over Russian gas prices the Ukrainian government say have been inflated as a result of their pro-European stance.</div>
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Despite the difficulties, key European and Ukrainian officials remain optimistic that the agreement will be signed, and a deal brokered which would see Ms Tymoshenko released to Germany on “humanitarian grounds”. </div>
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Speaking earlier on Tuesday, the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner, Stefan Fuele, said:</div>
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“I think we are not far away from that… I definitely expect that to have happened before the Vilnius summit.”</div>
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Last week Ukraine’s current Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, told The Independent: “we are extremely close to resolving this matter.”</div>
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Yet some analysts believe Kiev is simply delaying Ms Tymoshenko’s release in order to distract European attention from other areas in which it has fallen short of the reform commitments made to the EU.</div>
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Tetyana Mazur, Director of Amnesty International’s Ukraine office, told The Independent:</div>
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“Tymoshenko’s case is just the tip of a human rights iceberg – the rule of law is undermined daily here. If the EU does sign this agreement, they must make very clear the areas where Ukraine falls short of meeting its human rights obligations, and what they expect to be done about that.”</div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-63054131668042828212013-09-10T11:03:00.004+01:002013-09-15T21:56:23.448+01:00Campaign against torture press conference, April 2013 (Channel 5 News, Ukraine)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-42283335402396446522012-04-02T23:58:00.001+01:002013-09-16T13:31:54.099+01:00Azerbaijan: Running Scared - Interactive flash feature<div>
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Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-18262423620830470662011-10-26T00:04:00.000+01:002011-10-26T00:07:17.005+01:00Police criminality endemic in Ukraine<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QseiZlDz5AI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-47010109019585818672011-10-25T00:08:00.002+01:002011-10-26T00:11:08.061+01:00Clampdown on dissent in Azerbaijan (News webclip, March 2011)<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fHNnjhH3kLE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-37997796891060716192010-09-13T17:17:00.004+01:002010-09-13T18:39:10.669+01:00Deadly violence in Kyrgyzstan (News webclip, June 2010)<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UsHMyXg9P6A?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UsHMyXg9P6A?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-15736582823754928792010-09-13T17:00:00.003+01:002010-09-13T18:39:27.157+01:00Demonstration for release of Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev (Campaign webclip, June 2010)<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pJMAHmnymjA?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pJMAHmnymjA?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-76071693702096049982010-09-13T16:30:00.002+01:002010-09-13T18:39:45.693+01:00A human rights legacy for the Beijing Olympics (Campaign webclip, November 2008)<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YhyxQ-An87A?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YhyxQ-An87A?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5351828070048159434.post-37001315168666321012007-12-22T04:10:00.003+00:002010-09-29T14:01:30.475+01:00Wilkes and Liberalism (2007)<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Does John Wilkes deserve to be considered a key contributor to the liberal cause in eighteenth century Britain?</strong></span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">John Wilkes died in December 1797, having, as George Rudé puts it ‘long lived in the odour and sanctity of the new Toryism’.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span style="font-family:arial;">[1]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> By 1783 he had largely abandoned the radical cause to its own devices and the radical movement in Britain had all but forgotten about him. Yet even today Wilkes is remembered as ‘a friend to liberty’, and revered for his contribution to the development of British society. In November 2004 Lord Justice Judge, in a speech at the Law for Journalists Conference London, referred to the publication of the first <em>North Briton</em> as the beginning of an independent press:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>This is what I then said. “I believe in an independent press”. That is fundamental and remains my starting and finishing point. I said then, and I repeat, “For me, the clarion call is the first sentence of the first copy of the</em> North Briton<em>, published in 1762, by John Wilkes… In that address I wondered whether there was any memorial plaque to John Wilkes in say the Press Complaints Commission, or the huge buildings which house our national newspapers. I wondered whether there was any monument to him in St Brides. I said that I thought that there should be. The first publication of the </em>North Briton<em> was a historic moment. And such moments should be marked.</em></span><em><br /></em><br />The historiography of John Wilkes usually questions his sincerity, his personal commitment to the cause of liberty, or advances the notion that he was either a patriot or a demagogue - but on the whole it is taken as read that his actions were crucial to the cause of liberty and had a considerable impact on the nature of British politics. This essay will discuss first how vital the character of John Wilkes was to the 18th century liberal movement and whether he deserves to be thought of as an instigator of the movement, second the change in the nature of British politics during the period 1750-1797 and how much of that should be attributed to Wilkes (whilst considering alternative factors), and finally will examine those occasions on which Wilkes effectively impeded the progress of liberty or deserted the cause; which in turn requires some reflection on the sincerity of his commitment and his personal motivation. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Could there have been a movement of the Wilkite sort without the participation of Wilkes? The conditions of the time were certainly conducive to it. By the mid-eighteenth century Britain was ripe for a major political reform movement. Businessmen were inclined to vigorously agree with William Beckford when he said: ‘… and as to your nobility, about 200 men of quality, what are they to be the body of the nation? Why, sir, they are subalterns… They receive more from the public than they pay to it.’ As creators of wealth, many men of commerce considered the aristocracy as parasites.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2"><span style="font-family:arial;">[2]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Despite the fact that they made a substantial economic and cultural contribution to society that should have entitled them to respect and recognition, merchants, tradesmen, shopkeepers and professionals were far from adequately represented in the House of Commons. Government was seldom concerned with their interests during the reign of George III. Many merchants were unhappy with the conclusion of a war they had largely paid for on what they saw as unfavourable terms; the loss of Guadeloupe and its sugar plantations was particularly frustrating to them.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3"><span style="font-family:arial;">[3]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> It was off the back of this event that Wilkes’s <em>North Briton</em> was eagerly received. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">However, these men of enterprise were increasing in number and growing in influence. Examples of parliamentary lobbying are provided by Rogers; he mentions large scale petitioning by tanners against leather duties from 1697 to 1699 and by shopkeepers against Pitt’s retail tax in the 1780s, eventually bringing about a repeal of the act.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4"><span style="font-family:arial;">[4]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> It seems probable that, just as elsewhere in Europe, the ‘middling sort’ would have organised in defence of their interests and liberties, perhaps in a more extreme fashion than the Wilkites. Especially considering many of the ideals Wilkes came to be associated with were not original: Beckford in 1761 spoke against the disproportionate influence of ‘pocket boroughs’ and in 1769 called for extensive parliamentary reform.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5"><span style="font-family:arial;">[5]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Similar radical ideas had been voiced as early as Walpole’s premiership.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6"><span style="font-family:arial;">[6]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Wilkes was also not the only person publishing liberal material at the time; in 1771 an Historical Essay on the English Constitution appeared by Obadiah Hulme, followed in 1774 by James Burgh’s Political Disquisitions. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Similarly, the ‘inferior sort’ of people were forming a popular movement in London before Wilkes ‘fever’ swept the capital on his return from Paris in 1768. Rudé is quite certain that Wilkes, although helping to spread the movement, was not responsible for its conception, which was more a consequence of a severe winter and equally unfriendly economic conditions.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7"><span style="font-family:arial;">[7]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The emergence of some kind of independent press can almost be regarded as a certainty considering the rapidly rising numbers of literate people who had a vested interest in obtaining accurate political news from an alternative source to government. When such a great commercial demand arises someone will inevitably appear to sate it. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">However, this can only be speculation; it is more useful to assess Wilkes’s impact on the liberty movement through his actions and their repercussions. Even if Wilkes was not an essential ingredient he was at the very least an effective catalyst. Although the opposition paper <em>The Monitor</em> appeared alongside The <em>North Briton</em> it was not as popular nor as inflammatory, and was therefore a less effective means of promoting an alternative political viewpoint. No doubt this is why Justice Judge thinks not of <em>The Monitor</em> but the <em>North Briton</em> when he talks about an independent press. The complete lack of deference in the tone of the <em>North Briton</em> was a ground-breaking style of reporting, but it was really through his legal battles with the government that John Wilkes contributed to the development of an independent press. He was arrested after the publication of No. 45 of the <em>North Briton</em>, his house searched and documents seized under a general warrant that did not name him specifically. By publicly fighting his case and encouraging others to do likewise, Wilkes exposed the government’s authoritarian methods to public scrutiny and condemnation, leading Justice Pratt to rule in 1763 that general warrants were illegal.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8"><span style="font-family:arial;">[8]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Not only did this deprive the government of a form of censure they had been using for many years, it also gave British citizens a further measure of protection from wrongful arrest, thereby increasing their civil liberties. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">But defeating the government required more than Wilkes alone. In fact one might argue that the British legal system had evolved to protect its citizens from unfair persecution and that Wilkes and fellow printers merely provided test cases. Perhaps then it is more Justice Pratt’s decision that should be celebrated because of his courageous and liberal interpretation of the law, frowned upon as it was by some of his conservative peers, particularly Lord Mansfield: ‘No man has ever behaved so shamefully as Lord Chief Justice Pratt. He has denied Your Majesty that justice which any petty Justice of the Peace would have granted to a highwayman.’</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9"><span style="font-family:arial;">[9]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />On the other hand Wilkes was directly responsible for encouraging printers to bring successful suits for damages against the government, and so the increased boldness and independence of the press that was a consequence must be in no small part thanks to him. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">As a direct link between Parliament and the printing trade, as well as the political elite and the ‘middling sort’, Wilkes was uniquely placed to help the growth of an independent press. This link helped the cause in two ways; as a member of the political elite his peers could never manage to completely ignore him, whilst it also gave him access to otherwise restricted (often embarrassing) information he could bring back to his supporters and write about in his publications. The <em>North Briton</em> is undoubtedly all the more interesting because of the involvement of a socially and politically informed Member of Parliament, especially since parliamentary reporting was at this point still prohibited. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Although Wilkes was not particularly powerful or influential in national government, the positions he attained in London government for himself and his supporters were exceptionally useful to the Liberal movement. Under George III’s direction, the House of Commons attempted to curb the newfound independence of the London press and put an end to what was considered illegal Parliamentary reporting by arresting those responsible. Wilkes was able to use his position as an Alderman to engineer a situation whereby he could first declare their actions in contravention of City Laws, and then arrest a messenger of the House of Commons for trying to carry them out. Parliament’s overreaction to this, namely sending Lord Mayor Brass Crosby and Alderman Richard Oliver, both of whom were also Members of Parliament, to the Tower of London, merely served to extend sympathy for the liberal cause and outrage the population of London at this act of tyranny.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10"><span style="font-family:arial;">[10]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Without proper legal grounds for this action, the House eventually decided to adjourn and release the pair, presenting the Wilkites with another victory for the cause of Liberty and effectively demonstrating that government was now powerless to prevent the London press from reporting parliamentary debate. Although Wilkes was right in the thick of the affair,</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11"><span style="font-family:arial;">[11]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> it is worth noting that the principles he was defending were shared by the uppermost London officials, and the scheme required not only the bravery of Crosby and Oliver but the bellicose and guileless nature of George III and his ministry to turn out a success. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">One of the most useful aspects of Wilkes’s contribution was that he acted as a rallying point for disparate groups of radicals and even those merely disgruntled with government, being as he was not tied down by a definitive set of ideals but representing a more general demand for legitimate, less exclusive government, and the vague concept of ‘liberty’. This is reflected by his election platform of 1768, which was largely based on an attack of general warrants and seizure of papers, even though the courts had been declaring such methods unlawful since 1763, and therefore they were no longer a real concern.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12"><span style="font-family:arial;">[12]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Despite this he was able to marshal enough popular support to win the seat of Middlesex comfortably. It was Wilkes’s unique character that enabled him to become such a popular figurehead. He combined journalistic talent with a theatrical flair, and demonstrated an admirable resolve in the face of a formidable power. His successful attacks on the overbearing authority of the King and his ministers inspired the politically powerless to make themselves heard in defence of their rights. Unfortunately for the cause, many of these people were more celebrating Wilkes’s achievements and showing support for him than attaining a true understanding of the issues and actually developing their own ideology.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13"><span style="font-family:arial;">[13]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> This is demonstrated by the frequent unhelpful and random acts of violence committed by those using Wilkite slogans, </span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14"><span style="font-family:arial;">[14]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> and by the movement’s failure to survive once Wilkes had moved on. It seems that Edmund Burke was accurate in his observation that ‘the crowd always want to draw themselves from abstract principles to personal attachments’.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15"><span style="font-family:arial;">[15]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Another attribute Wilkes contributed to the liberal movement was his canny use of publicity and propaganda. Brewer describes his ‘extraordinary skill in producing propaganda in almost every shape, form and size.’</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16"><span style="font-family:arial;">[16]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Timely handbills were issued to Wilkite supporters so that they might make their voices heard at critical moments, such as Brass Crosby’s committal to the Tower.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17"><span style="font-family:arial;">[17]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">But was Wilkes really the great friend to liberty he portrayed himself to be? Historians frequently question his sincerity and the motivation behind his actions. Christie heavily implies that his return from Paris in 1768 in order to run for Parliament was more because of financial concerns than anything else. As an M.P. he would be immune to arrest for debt and Wilkes himself stated: ‘What the devil have I to do with prudence? I owe money in France, am an outlaw in England, hated by the King, the Parliament, and the bench of bishops… I must raise a dust or starve in gaol’.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18"><span style="font-family:arial;">[18]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> These are not the words of a man returning to sacrifice himself for the liberty of his countrymen. In fact, after he had been expelled from parliament he wrote to Lord Temple that he would not be returning to England.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19"><span style="font-family:arial;">[19]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> This, together with the fact that Wilkes spent much of his four-year exile travelling pleasurably in France and Italy, gives the impression that he was not a man wholly devoted to his cause, and in fact was more concerned with his own well-being. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Indeed, given his profligate lifestyle at the time, it would not be unreasonable to suppose that Wilkes’s initial interest in being elected to Parliament was more linked to the social connections and the social elevation that accompanied the position than in order to advance the cause of liberty.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20"><span style="font-family:arial;">[20]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> After all, his first spell as the Member for Aylesbury was spent predominantly in the pursuit of pleasure, whether it be at Medmenham Abbey or the Beefsteak Club.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21"><span style="font-family:arial;">[21]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Some of his activities in City politics call Wilkes’s commitment to the liberal cause further into question. His personal differences with John Sawbridge and John Horne led to the break up of the Bill of Rights Society, and the rivalry between the two factions saw the King’s favourite William Nash elected Lord Mayor instead of the liberal Sawbridge, a direct consequence of Wilkes dividing the liberal vote and backing Brass Crosby.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22"><span style="font-family:arial;">[22]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie opines that the split occurred because: ‘Wilkes resented the diversion of some of its (the Society’s) funds from his own use to the support of the printers’.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23"><span style="font-family:arial;">[23]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> This is the accusation that Horne makes in his letters to Wilkes after the split.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24"><span style="font-family:arial;">[24]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Whereas Brewer is of the view that the clash came about because he did not share their radical ideology and they did not share his radical methods.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25"><span style="font-family:arial;">[25]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Either way, John Wilkes in this instance was clearly not prepared to compromise for the greater good of the liberal cause, and this enabled Nash to set about blocking suggestions for reform.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26"><span style="font-family:arial;">[26]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">There is a lot to be said in defence of the view that John Wilkes was more of a friend to himself than a friend to liberty. Throughout his life he professed his dedication to the cause, but his radical activities were usually either concerned with righting injustices done to himself or fighting for issues in which he had a particular interest: He fought against general warrants after he had been issued one, he fought for his seat in Parliament after he had been deprived of it. He defended parliamentary reporting, and as a political journalist himself he had a vested interest in doing so. Moreover, until he was allowed to take his seat in Parliament Wilkes would be inclined to antagonise the House of Commons. When he was called to appear before the House of Commons with regard to his obstruction of the King’s Messenger he replied he would not until permitted to attend in his place as a member.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27"><span style="font-family:arial;">[27]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">True, he supported shorter parliaments and more equal representation, but he pressed these issues with none of the vigour he had shown in his own struggles, and with little success.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28"><span style="font-family:arial;">[28]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Notably he did not attempt to use his continued popularity amongst the lower classes to pressure the government, actually showing a certain disdain for them.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn29" name="_ftnref29"><span style="font-family:arial;">[29]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> This indicates that in reality he did not feel they shared a common cause, although he professed to when it suited. Symbolic of this is his defence of the Bank of England during the Gordon Riots, and he even went so far as to issue what amounts to a general warrant for ‘searching and securing all idle and disorderly persons, and all concealed arms.’ Furthermore he imprisoned a fellow publisher for printing ‘seditious and treasonable papers.’</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn30" name="_ftnref30"><span style="font-family:arial;">[30]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Such hypocrisy certainly suits the profile of a man who is prepared to marshal every argument available in support of his own cause, but does not truly appreciate the principles involved. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Wilkes constantly manipulated language so that he might increase his support base, he was incredibly successful, for example, in turning his personal libel case into a case concerning the ‘Liberty of all peers and gentlemen, and… all the middling and inferior class of the people’.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn31" name="_ftnref31"><span style="font-family:arial;">[31]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> For that reason it is difficult to ascertain from his words whether he speaks with true conviction or as a demagogue. If we are to accept the idiom that ‘actions speak louder than words’ then his refusal to work solidly in promotion of the radical cause with Sawbridge, Townsend and Horne, his later rejection of the ‘inferior sort’, and finally his acceptance of a comfortable ‘extinct volcano’ status under the younger Pitt do little to promote him as a ‘pure and high-souled lover of liberty’.</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn32" name="_ftnref32"><span style="font-family:arial;">[32]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Although during Wilkes’s lifetime there were no obvious statutory reforms to Parliament, the political workings of the country had changed notably by the time he died. Legal measures the government had used as a means of repressing dissent were declared invalid; general warrants were made illegal and Members of Parliament were derived of their supposed right to reject a member. The disenfranchised masses had been encouraged to become politically active and had responded, helped along by the commercialisation of politics and widely available political publications, as well as mass petitioning. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">However, these appear to be almost side-effects of Wilkes’s battle for self-preservation against an increasingly tyrannical government, and he went some way to reversing them through his own use of general warrants and military repression during the Gordon Riots. It appears that Wilkes felt the need to halt the encroachment of the crown into ministerial affairs, but the same authoritarian methods were valid when directed by elected representatives rather than the crown. In this aspect he was a true Whig. As Trench puts it: ‘Wilkes was no revolutionary. That is to say, his revolution had taken place in 1688, and all he now wanted was to return to the balanced Settlement which that had brought about.’</span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftn33" name="_ftnref33"><span style="font-family:arial;">[33]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Just as Wilkes regarded himself as an ‘accidental patriot’, he appears an accidental friend to liberty and a better friend of the status quo prior to George III. The tribulations of William Cobbett twelve years after Wilkes’s death illustrate just how far Britain had yet to travel on the road to liberty. </span></div><p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></p><div align="justify"><br /></div><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Bibliography<br /></strong><br />Barry, Jonathon & Brooks, Christopher (eds.) – The Middling Sort of People: Culture, Society and Politics in England, 1550-1800 (London: Macmillan 1994)<br /><br /><br />Brewer, John – Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1976)<br /><br /><br />Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform: The Parliamentary Reform Movement in British Politics 1760-1785 (London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. 1962)<br /><br /><br />Postgate, Raymond – “That Devil Wilkes” (London: Constable & Co. Ltd 1930)<br /><br /><br />Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty: A Social Study of 1763 to 1774 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1962)<br /><br /><br />Shirley, Walter Shirley – John Wilkes: Demagogue or a Patriot? (London: Stevens and Sons 1879)<br /><br /><br />Trench, Charles Chevenix – Portrait of a Patriot: A Biography of John Wilkes (Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons Ltd. 1962)<br /><br /><br />Thomas, Peter D.G. – John Wilkes: A Friend to Liberty (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1996)<br /><br /><br />Thomas, Peter D.G. – Wilkes, John in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004)<br /><br /><br />Weatherly, Edward H. (ed.) – The Correspondence of John Wilkes and Charles Churchill (New York: Columbia University Press 1954)</span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></p><div align="justify"><br /><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span style="font-family:arial;">[1]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.192<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2"><span style="font-family:arial;">[2]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform p.9<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3"><span style="font-family:arial;">[3]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.16<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4"><span style="font-family:arial;">[4]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rogers, Nicholas – The Middling Sort in Eighteenth-Century Politics in Barry, J & Brooks, C. (eds.) – The Middling Sort of People p.162<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5"><span style="font-family:arial;">[5]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.16<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6"><span style="font-family:arial;">[6]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform p.36<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7"><span style="font-family:arial;">[7]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.39<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8"><span style="font-family:arial;">[8]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Thomas, Peter D.G – John Wilkes in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9"><span style="font-family:arial;">[9]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Trench, Charles C. – Portrait of a Patriot p.127<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10"><span style="font-family:arial;">[10]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Postgate, Raymond – ‘That Devil Wilkes p.200<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11"><span style="font-family:arial;">[11]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.157<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12"><span style="font-family:arial;">[12]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform p.27<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13"><span style="font-family:arial;">[13]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Trench, Charles C. – Portrait of a Patriot p.222<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14"><span style="font-family:arial;">[14]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.53<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15"><span style="font-family:arial;">[15]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Burke, Edmund – Burke Correspondence in Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.46<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16"><span style="font-family:arial;">[16]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Brewer, John – Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III p.173<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17"><span style="font-family:arial;">[17]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.160<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18"><span style="font-family:arial;">[18]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform p.26<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19"><span style="font-family:arial;">[19]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.35<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20"><span style="font-family:arial;">[20]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.19<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21"><span style="font-family:arial;">[21]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Shirley, Walter S. – John Wilkes: Demagogue or Patriot? pp.11-13<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22"><span style="font-family:arial;">[22]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.165<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23"><span style="font-family:arial;">[23]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform p.47<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24"><span style="font-family:arial;">[24]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Postgate, Raymond – ‘That Devil Wilkes p.163<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25"><span style="font-family:arial;">[25]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Brewer, John – Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III p.199<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26"><span style="font-family:arial;">[26]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform p.57<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27"><span style="font-family:arial;">[27]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Postgate, Raymond – ‘That Devil Wilkes p.201<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28"><span style="font-family:arial;">[28]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Christie, Ian R. – Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform p.67<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref29" name="_ftn29"><span style="font-family:arial;">[29]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Rudé, George – Wilkes and Liberty p.192<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref30" name="_ftn30"><span style="font-family:arial;">[30]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Thomas, Peter D.G. – John Wilkes p.188<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref31" name="_ftn31"><span style="font-family:arial;">[31]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Wilkes, John, as appears in Brewer, John – Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III p.168<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref32" name="_ftn32"><span style="font-family:arial;">[32]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Shirley, Walter S. – John Wilkes: Demagogue or Patriot? p.46<br /></span><a title="" style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5351828070048159434#_ftnref33" name="_ftn33"><span style="font-family:arial;">[33]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Trench, Charles C. – Portrait of a Patriot p.267</span></div>Max Tuckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869292220381554574noreply@blogger.com