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Ukraine Parliament votes to remove President Yanukovych


Valin

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KIEV, Ukraine, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The Ukraine Parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych Saturday and called for new elections in three months.

The vote by 328 members came about an hour after Yanukovych said he would not resign following days of bloody protests, the BBC reported.

 

Lawmakers said early presidential elections would be held May 25. Opposition leaders had called for the early elections after a peace deal struck Friday between the government and opposition leaders said elections would be held by December.

 

Yanukovych said in a television interview from a city near the Russian border he would not leave office because he needed to "protect the people." He accused protesters of conducting a "coup."

(Snip)


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1506 GMT: Poland, for one, seems to be putting its money where its mouth is, and is taking a more direct role in Ukraine now that the Rada has essentially cast Yanukovych out and Yanukovych has pitted himself against the Rada:

 

Michał Safianik @safianik

 

Polish First Lady Anna Komorowska visited demonstrators injured in clashes in Kiev and hospitalized in Poland. #Euromaidan #Solidarity

 

 

 

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RT

(Snip)

 

15:39 GMT:

The Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) has voted for the resignation of the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, citing “not fulfilling duties.” The Rada also voted for a resolution according to which early presidential elections will be held May 25.

 

Aleksandr Turchinov the new head speaker of the parliament read the text of the resolution, which says that “as Viktor Yanukovich has abandoned his presidential post (he secretly moved to his residence in Kharkov), the parliament had no choice but to announce early presidential elections.”

 

15:26 GMT:

Russia says that France, Germany and Poland, the main EU representatives throughout the Ukrainian crisis, “share its concerns” about the opposition not fulfilling the terms of the agreement signed between its leaders and Yanukovich on Friday, says a statement from the Russian foreign ministry, following Sergey Lavrov’s phone conversation with his European counterparts.

 

“The opposition is not only failing to comply with its obligations, but keeps making new demands, at the behest of radicals and looters who pose a threat to the constitutional order and sovereignty of Ukraine,” said a statement on the ministry’s website.

 

Friday’s EU-mediated deal promised a transitional government, early elections and constitutional reform, which were the primary demands of the opposition at the start of the stand-off.

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Interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-5

 

(Snip)

 

1628 GMT: We hope that the protesters who have taken control of Viktor Yanukovich’s property preserve evidence like this so it can be analyzed later, but this is a remarkable piece of paper, and we’d love to know where the money went:

 

Maxim Eristavi @MaximEristavi


At Yanukovych's residence journos found a receipt for handover of $12M. In cash(!). via @svaboda pic.twitter.com/0MUBEhAfZm

 

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To get why so many people hate Viktor Yanukovych, take a tour of his ridiculously luxurious mansion

Adam Taylor

February 22 at 10:17 am

 

 

Ukraine's ongoing crisis is about many things: geopolitics, economics, linguistics, ethnicity, to name a few.

 

But for many people, the problem is much simpler. It's all about President Viktor Yanukovych, who is widely believed to have used his position as the country's leader to enrich himself and his inner circle, collectively known in Ukraine as "the family."

 

To get an idea of why Yanukovych is so loathed by many in Ukraine, take a quick tour of his mansion in Mezhyhirya, some 12 miles outside Kiev. Now that Yanukovych has fled the capital, thousands of people, including reporters and curious bystanders, have made their way to the residence.

 

 

BhFGqPeCEAEHyUi.jpg

@JaredMorgan1

 

"Tasteful" galleon on Yanukovych's man-made lake RT

@KonstantinBznv:pic.twitter.com/Eoy9mFe0HI #Euromaidan #Ukraine #Yanukovych

7:00 AM - 22 Feb 2014from Ukraine, Ukraine

 

PS

 

BhF0kQ0CYAEXBhk.jpg

toilet at Yanukovych's palace

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Nothing like neutral reporting in the Washington Post

 

To get why so many people hate Viktor Yanukovych, take a tour of his ridiculously luxurious mansion

 

If loathing of wealth is a stick to provoke people into hatred, the WaPo could start at home

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Nothing like neutral reporting in the Washington Post

 

To get why so many people hate Viktor Yanukovych, take a tour of his ridiculously luxurious mansion

 

If loathing of wealth is a stick to provoke people into hatred, the WaPo could start at home

 

 

Given what is going on in Ukraine and there history, and these photos are all over the twitterverse it is understandable.

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Interpretermag.com Ukraine-liveblog-day-5

1725 GMT: More on Russian Kremlin-owned media spin on what has essentially been a disaster of development for the Russian government:

 

Tony Halpin @tonyhalpin

@RT_com is broadcasting events in Ukraine under the heading "Kiev Anarchy Reigns"

11:18 AM - 22 Feb 2014

 

John Horne @JohnHorneUK

@MillerMENA

I flicked to RT earlier to see their take on Ukraine. After 5 mins of a piece on Jimmy Kimmels stunt re Sochi I went back to BBC

 

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So what happens if there is an early election in 3 months and the Russian-speaking east Ukrainians prevail once again, as they did in 2010? That election was deemed free and fair by international observers. Do the western-leaning Ukrainians take to the streets again? Does anyone in that country really understand democracy? Yes, Yanukovich is a bum (as my husband says), he is corrupt, and a Putin puppet. We could say some of the same things about our president, but no one is throwing molotov cocktails and burning up our captital. At least not yet....

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So what happens if there is an early election in 3 months and the Russian-speaking east Ukrainians prevail once again, as they did in 2010? That election was deemed free and fair by international observers. Do the western-leaning Ukrainians take to the streets again? Does anyone in that country really understand democracy? Yes, Yanukovich is a bum (as my husband says), he is corrupt, and a Putin puppet. We could say some of the same things about our president, but no one is throwing molotov cocktails and burning up our captital. At least not yet....

 

All the usual suspects will inform us of what is going to happen....some of them may actually have a clue...it could happen....I suppose.

 

They could prevail in the next election certainly, and our Good friend Putin will be doing all he can to see a friendly government is elected.

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Interpretermag.com Ukraine-liveblog-day-5

 

(Snip)

2206 GMT: Yanukovych may have fled Kiev, and he may have tried to hide his tracks, but he did a poor job. All day, journalists and civilians have been retrieving important documents dumped in the water near his houses. However, journalists appear to have gained the upper hand. So far, we can’t say for sure what is in the documents, but short glimpses suggest that there is a paper trail of corruption, perhaps money laundering and payoffs, and at the very least extravagant payoffs to officials. But most disturbing so far have been documents that prove that he was using the government to collect information on journalists and suppress opposing viewpoints.

The veil has been thrown down, and a quick look at the efforts of these journalists shows that the Ukrainian people are dedicated to exposing the dirty truth hidden behind Yanukovych’s closed doors:

 

Katya Gorchinskaya @kgorchinskaya

journos sorting docs in Mezhygirya KP's Vlad Lavrov is in the middle

#Ukraine #Euromaidan pic.twitter.com/c70ry7XQ0d

 

 

 

___________________________________________________________________

 

It appears Yanukovych and his gang has been a very bad....and not particularly smart. Dump them in the water? Never heard of a paper shredder?

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Ukraine's Tymoshenko rallies protesters in Kiev

JIM HEINTZ and ANGELA CHARLTON

Posted: Feb 22, 2014 6:45 AM CST Updated: Feb 22, 2014 3:27 PM CST

 

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Hours after her release from prison, former Ukrainian prime minister and opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko appeared before an ecstatic throng at the protester encampment in Ukraine's capital Saturday, praising the demonstrators killed in violence this week and urging the protesters to keep occupying the square.

Her speech to the crowd of about 50,000, made from a wheelchair because of the severe back problems she suffered in 2½ years of imprisonment, was the latest stunning development in the fast-moving Ukrainian political crisis.

 

(Snip)

 

On Saturday, Tymoshenko appeared close to exhaustion and her voice cracked frequently, but her flair for vivid words was undimmed.

"You are heroes, you are the best thing in Ukraine!" she said of those killed in the violence. The Health Ministry on Saturday said the death toll in clashes between protesters and police that included sniper attacks had reached 82.

And she urged the demonstrators not to yield from their encampment in the square, known in Ukrainian as the Maidan.

"In no case do you have the right to leave the Maidan until you have concluded everything that you planned to do," she said.

 

After the 2004 protests helped bring Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency, Tymoshenko became prime minister. But when Yanukovych won the 2010 election, Tymoshenko was arrested and put on trial for abuse of office, an action widely seen as political revenge.

Her call for protests to continue and Yanukovych's defiance leaves unsettled the fate of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million of huge strategic importance to Russia, Europe and the United States.

 

(Snip)

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Interpretermag.com Ukraine-liveblog-day-5

 

2105 GMT: Here are some excerpts from Tymoshenko’s speech at the Maidan taken from two reports on Censor.NET:

The liberation struggle will lead to the establishment of democracy in other post-Soviet countries. People who are now repressed by dictatorial and authoritarian regimes are pinning their hopes on you.

 

You are heroes, you are the best Ukraine has. I believe that, when snipers sent bullets into our boys’ hearts, these bullets were fired in to the hearts of each of us. And these bullets will remain in our hearts forever. If the people who did this are not held responsible, it will be a stain throughout the rest of time. Every minute, while you stood on the barricades and fell dead, I reproached myself for not being with you, that those bars prevented me from being next to you.

 

You have given this country to each and every one of us. The people who have been on the Maidan, who have died on the Maidan, these are heroes for the ages, these are our liberators.

 

 

 

yulia-620x365.png

Gulliver Cragg @gullivercragg

 

#ukraine tymoshenko now speaking on hrushevsky street, crying

 

 

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Oh my gosh. Prison food has made Yulia Tymoshenko twice her previous size. If she didn't still have her braids I would never have recognized her.

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Protests in east Ukraine ease separatism fears

Sun, 23 Feb 2014 12:35 AM

 

KHARKIV, Ukraine, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A bid by regional leaders loyal to President Viktor Yanukovich to challenge the legitimacy of the national parliament appeared to founder on Saturday, after thousands of protesters rallied in eastern Ukraine in support of the political changes in Kiev.

 

The meeting of governors of mainly Russian-speaking regions in the northeastern city of Kharkiv had raised the possibility of a split in the vast former Soviet republic of 46 million. The leaders denied that this was their intention.

 

(Snip)

 

Many politicians have warned of a looming partition in Ukraine, which broke peacefully from the Soviet Union in 1991, since people took to the streets late last year to protest against Yanukovich for spurning political and trade deals with the European Union. Western Ukraine is broadly pro-EU.

 

Some Ukrainians are also worried by calls in Crimea for the region to again become Russian territory, nearly six decades after Kremlin leader Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian, redrew internal Soviet boundaries to make a gift of the peninsula to Ukraine.

 

"The revolution has been won in Kiev, in part of Ukraine, but not in the whole of Ukraine. We still have many risks," said Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst at the Kiev-based Penta think-tank.

 

(Snip)

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In Memoriam -- Twitter Storm
Maidan Hotspot

 

Help us honor our fallen heroes of Ukraine by tweeting in their honor all day Sunday, especially during the Olympic Closing Ceremonies.
*Remember -- you can tweet your status again after about an hour, so please tweet these tweets ALL DAY*


Copy and Paste Tweets are here:
https://docs.google.com/
spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ah6mrOeE3abddHc3VF9yVUY5YURVS1RSWm02RkRIVHc#gid=0


Click-to-tweet links are here: http://www.maidanhotspot.com/twitter-storm-in-memoriam

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A pirate ship restaurant? Really?

 

Would that be an opportunity to introduce the GrapePad to a new audience?

 

 

I think we will stay away from anything even close to Russia "commerce".

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Kremlin denounces independent Ukraine, blames West http://20committee.com/2014/02/22/kremlin-denounces-independent-ukraine-blames-west/


 

Things are moving very fast in Ukraine today. President Yanukovych, after the bloodbath this week on the streets of Kyiv, has been thrown out of office by the parliament. The country is in turmoil, and in the east, centered on Kharkiv, the Moscow-backed Ukrainian Front that I informed you of three weeks ago, is arming the population and preparing for war.

 

And now the Russian Foreign Ministry has made its position clear in a new press release on its website – the new government in Kyiv is illegitimate and it’s the West’s fault. This is a remarkably rough diplomatic message. It cannot be construed as anything less than a threat to an independent Ukraine. The full text follows …

 

“About a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister S.V. Lavrov and the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France”

 

On 22 February, separate telephone conversations took place between Russian Foreign Minister S.V. Lavrov and German Foreign Minister F.-W. Steinmeier, Polish Foreign Minister R. Sikorski and French Foreign Minister L. Fabius.

 

S.V. Lavrov expressed the most serious concern over the inability of those who signed the agreement in Kyiv on 21 February to agree. Not only did the opposition fail to honor any of its commitments, it is also putting forward new demands, taking its cue from the armed extremists and rioters whose actions pose a direct threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty and constitutional order.

Scissors-32x32.png

 

TheXXCommittee via WeaselZippers http://weaselzippers.us/175794-russia-threatens-independent-ukraine-insists-feb-21-agreement-be-honored/

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Kremlin denounces independent Ukraine, blames West http://20committee.com/2014/02/22/kremlin-denounces-independent-ukraine-blames-west/

 

Things are moving very fast in Ukraine today. President Yanukovych, after the bloodbath this week on the streets of Kyiv, has been thrown out of office by the parliament. The country is in turmoil, and in the east, centered on Kharkiv, the Moscow-backed Ukrainian Front that I informed you of three weeks ago, is arming the population and preparing for war.

 

And now the Russian Foreign Ministry has made its position clear in a new press release on its website – the new government in Kyiv is illegitimate and it’s the West’s fault. This is a remarkably rough diplomatic message. It cannot be construed as anything less than a threat to an independent Ukraine. The full text follows …

 

“About a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister S.V. Lavrov and the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France”

 

On 22 February, separate telephone conversations took place between Russian Foreign Minister S.V. Lavrov and German Foreign Minister F.-W. Steinmeier, Polish Foreign Minister R. Sikorski and French Foreign Minister L. Fabius.

 

S.V. Lavrov expressed the most serious concern over the inability of those who signed the agreement in Kyiv on 21 February to agree. Not only did the opposition fail to honor any of its commitments, it is also putting forward new demands, taking its cue from the armed extremists and rioters whose actions pose a direct threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty and constitutional order.

Scissors-32x32.png

 

TheXXCommittee via WeaselZippers http://weaselzippers.us/175794-russia-threatens-independent-ukraine-insists-feb-21-agreement-be-honored/

 

Blah, Blah, Blah. I want to know what Obama thinks!!

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