Ukrainian protesters topple statue of Lenin in Kiev

by **Admin** Sun Dec 08, 2013 11:44 pm

Ukrainian protesters topple statue of Lenin in Kiev 600x39916

NBC News wrote:
By Gareth Jones and Alissa de Carbonnel, Reuters

KIEV - Anti-government protesters toppled a statue of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine's capital and attacked it with hammers on Sunday in a symbolic challenge to President Viktor Yanukovich and his plans for closer ties with Russia.

The gesture rejecting Moscow's historic influence over Ukraine came after opposition leaders told hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on Kiev's Independence Square to keep up pressure on Yanukovich to sack his government.

The protesters are furious that the government decided last month to ditch a landmark pact with the European Union in favour of closer economic cooperation with Moscow, Ukraine's Soviet-era overlord.
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Yanukovich's sudden tack towards Russia has provoked the biggest street protests since the 2004-5 Orange Revolution, when people power forced a re-run of a fraud-tainted election and thwarted his first run for the presidency.

"Yanukovich, you are next!" read a poster stuck on the plinth where the red granite statue of Lenin had stood. People hacked off chunks of the prostrate - and now headless - leader of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution to take home as souvenirs.

Cheered by the crowd, a woman planted an EU flag on the pedestal where the 3-1/2 metre (11 feet, 6 inch)-high statue had stood since 1946.

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by **Admin** Mon Dec 09, 2013 9:15 am

by **Leon Mcnichol** Mon Dec 09, 2013 3:56 pm

Proof that the cold war is far from over.

There has been a huge amount of anti Russia propaganda in all the european media, and this is yet another agitation from the EU agents, who are desperate to extend it's "market" deeper into eastern europe.

by **Rev Scare** Mon Dec 09, 2013 5:08 pm

It is unfortunate to see legitimate public discontent manifest in this reactionary fashion. Ukraine would have remained a destitute backwater of Europe without the Soviet Union. Its miserable situation today is entirely the fault of the counterrevolution.

by Uberak Sat Dec 21, 2013 7:17 pm

My opinion can be summed up as this: Ukrainians, get yourselves together and mobilize yourselves against the behemoths of the European Union and Russia! Seize your country from the Russian puppets and the EU-supported lackeys in the opposition!

Seriously, this is the country that birthed the likes of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, Makhno's Black Army, and Petliura. Rebelliousness against occupying powers and the local elite are core tenets of the Ukrainian national consciousness. But really, I shouldn't be telling what Ukrainians should do, as I am not an Ukrainian myself. They should decide things for themselves, though I can definitely give them my opinions and suggestions.

Basically, I wish good luck to the Ukrainian people and hope that they can find a third way between the European Union and Russia.