This post is a nod to the blog’s Ukrainian
readership. About one-third of all page
views to the blog now originate in Ukraine.
It is now far and away the blog’s second biggest market, behind the US.
Mexico, you have fallen by the wayside. Time to catch up. In a nod to my Ukrainian readers, I will make
an effort to post more on events in Ukraine, along with the normal assorted stories
of drunken feral hogs, big-booty injections gone wrong, other assorted evil,
and Florida (all of which seemed to have brought you all into the blog in the first
place). And, it is a nod to let your American
brothers and sisters know what is going on over there, that is not reported in
the mainstream American Press, or on Fark.com, which also qualifies as far as I
am concerned.
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| Kiev rioting on October 14, in front of the Rada |
Most Americans, I’m convinced,
thought that after the recent revolution in Kiev, in which the pro-western
population threw out Viktor Yanukovych, causing him to flee east and toppling
the government, the action transferred south to Crimea, and east to the
Donbas. American news outlets have
largely passed over continuing unrest in Kiev itself.
Last week, there was a large clash
in front of the Ukrainian Parliament between far-right parties and riot
police. The rally which preceded the
riot was demanding a ban on communist ideology and recognition of soldiers of the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army as veterans. I
hate communists as much as the next man, perhaps more owning to many friends
whose families fled communist Vietnam and Cuba.
I understand the point of being anti-communist. I understand the sore wounds after
generations of Russian communist rule over Ukraine, and the recent Russian
incursions into Donbas in the east and Crimea in the south.
The question was who or what set
off the riots.
According to KyivPost, Ukraine’s Security Service said
that it had arrested a police officer accused of being an agent provocateur,
who was sling-shotting screws into the crowd.
The policeman allegedly wore a balaclava to hide his face, while
shooting the screws into the crowd. The
Security Service said the officer was among other provocateurs who were trying
to disrupt the parliament meeting and destabilize the capital. A far-right group, as well as Russian
Intelligence have been accused of being behind the clashes, ergo, behind the
officer firing screws into the crowd of demonstrators to start a riot.
While new president Poro
Poroshenko has been trying to calm the situation on the ground, and has reached
a tentative price-reduction deal with Russia on natural gas (over half of
European natural gas goes through Ukraine), and any price dispute threatened to disrupt
both Ukrainian supplies and European heating and industrial fuel for the
winter), and fighting continues in the east, albeit somewhat muted from the
earlier Russian invasion, the last that President Poroshenko needs is rioting
in the capital. As Russia’s economy continues to tank with the price of oil and trade sanctions, and China extracts tough trade deals, Putin needs something to distract
the Russian population. Riots in Kiev
would do it.
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