Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

The coup has heightened religious tensions in Ukraine, where the majority of Orthodox churches are subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, while some pledge loyalty to the Kiev one, established in 1992 and unrecognized by Eastern Orthodox communion.

Inspired by the anti-Russian feeling of the Maidan protests, radical activists have been coming up with all kinds of threats to Orthodox churches under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.

On Tuesday, a group of 10 men arrived at the Diocese of Sumy Ukrainian Orthodox Church to force the clergy to pray for the activists in Ukraine.

“They said they are outraged that the clergy of Sumy diocese are allegedly not praying for the victims of the Maidan,” Itar-Tass reported a statement from the diocese as saying.

Archbishop Eulogy met with one of the men who tried to convince the bishop of the need for joint worship with the Archbishop Methodius of Kiev Patriarchate at the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral.

“Having received clarification that canonical rules do not allow him to do so, the men said that the building of the diocese and the cathedral will be bombarded with Molotov cocktails,” the diocese’s press service said.

In a separate incident on the same day, the entrance to the famous Pochaevsky Monastery in western Ukraine was blocked by activists belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Kiev Patriarchate.

“Around noon, six buses drove up to the monastery,” said the monk. “They blocked the entrance, not letting the pilgrims in, people are alarmed.” The group tried to enter the monastery but were prevented from doing so because of their “aggressive behavior.”

The Kiev Patriarchate eventually had to deny rumors that there was a plan to seize churches of the Moscow Patriarchate.

“The Kiev Patriarchate is not calling for attacks on or for seizures of churches under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. We have been calling on our brothers and sisters in the Moscow Patriarchate to unite into one manorial Orthodox church. That’s why we are not interested in instigating enmity in those we wish to unite with,” the Kiev Patriarchate said in a statement, Interfax reported.

Ryska hockey fans stödde den ukrainska Maidan ovanliga flashmob.

Enligt "äîæäĸ "när du spelar" Spartacus "och" CSKA "De skanderade" Ära till Ukraina "och" Heroes of härlighet. "

The Maidan gathering wants Andrey Parubiy, 43, to head the country’s National Security and Defense Council. A deputy for Fatherland party, he actively participated both in the recent uprising and in Orange Revolution. Parubiy began his political career back in the late 80ties, when he headed a nationalist youth organization.

From left, Volodymyr Shpara, Ihor Mosiychuk and Serhiy Bevza were convicted and sentenced to six years in prison – on top of the two years they have spent in pre-trial detention – for planning a terrorist act. Authorities accused them of trying to blow up a non-existent Vladimir Lenin statue, but went ahead with the prosecution against the men for allegedly plotting unconstitutional acts of terror. Parliament voted on Feb. 25 to set them free as political prisoners.

On Feb. 24, parliament passed a bill to free 23 political prisoners. Eight are members of far-right groups believed to have been persecuted for their political beliefs. Five were anti-drug trafficking activists, one a lawyer to a member of a traffic police watchdog, another is an artist, and four were put in prison for allegedly setting a courthouse on fire. Two others are a father and son who were convicted of killing a judge but whose supporters say were innocent and framed. Another political prisoner is a student who apparently stabbed three police officers in what activists say was a fabricated case. Another was convicted of shooting a police major despite eye witness reports to the contrary.

A larger question is whether what is happening in Ukraine is the politics of pillaging. How the Ukrainian economy -- the 51st largest in the world with a $175 billion GDP (according to 2012 World Bank figures, two notches below Peru and just after the Czech Republic) -- with at least 15 billionaires, can be on the verge of bankruptcy?

According to Chatham House’s Lutsevych, “it is fair” to describe the Ukrainian crisis as a result of the politics of pillaging. “Yanukovych and the rich would use public office to build monopolies and benefit from them,” she said. “Corruption in the Ukraine skyrocketed and corporate raiding increased.”
According to Olena Zakharova, director of the foreign policy department at the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kiev, “The Ukrainian economy has been pillaged by the oligarchs during all the years after independence, and this process reached its highest point during Yanukovych’s presidency.” She added that “all the money flows were oriented to the ‘Family’ oligarchs, first of all Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr, young Family representative Serhiy Kurchenko, Yanukovych’s right-hand man Andriy Kliuyev, and others. The other oligarchs had to share their businesses and assets with the Family in order to survive and have the possibility to profit from the state budget, which has put the country on the edge of bankruptcy.”---

True to form, Ukrainian oligarchs stayed on the sidelines as the political crisis unfolded, keeping as low a profile as possible. That required a particular set of skills, as politics and big business are deeply intertwined in Ukraine -- to a much higher degree than in Russia, where magnates steer clear of politics, especially under Vladimir Putin’s reign.

Rinat Akhmetov, the richest Ukrainian, with an estimated net worth of $12.5 billion, controlled a bloc of 50 lawmakers of the then-ruling Party of Regions at the 442-seat Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, according to experts including Orysia Lutsevych, a Ukraine expert at Chatham House in London. Another 30 MPs were controlled by Dmytro Firtash, who made his fortune in the chemicals and natural gas trade.

Their influence was not restricted to parliament. According to Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and one of the foremost experts on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, when now-deposed Yanukovych took office in February 2010, his first cabinet of ministers included representatives from nine different corporate groups.