13:48
23.5.2014
RFE/RL's Russian Service has been talking to Lech Walesa, who has been quite critical of the Maidan movement:
Former Polish President Lech Walesa has criticized leaders of Ukraine's pro-European Maidan protest movement for failing to negotiate with the former government, thus giving Russia a pretext for intervention.
Speaking to RFE/RL on May 23, Walesa said the Maidan protestors "chose the wrong method for their fight."
"They should have engaged in negotiations and pushed for early elections but [instead] there was no dialogue with the legal authorities," he said.
But the former leader of the Solidarity freedom movement said Europe should never accept Russia's intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
"We cannot accept what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has done or continues to do," he said.
Walesa spoke on the eve of the 25th anniversary of elections that marked the end of communist rule in Poland.
WATCH: Lech Walesa on the Euromaidan movement
Speaking to RFE/RL on May 23, Walesa said the Maidan protestors "chose the wrong method for their fight."
"They should have engaged in negotiations and pushed for early elections but [instead] there was no dialogue with the legal authorities," he said.
But the former leader of the Solidarity freedom movement said Europe should never accept Russia's intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
"We cannot accept what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has done or continues to do," he said.
Walesa spoke on the eve of the 25th anniversary of elections that marked the end of communist rule in Poland.
14:32
23.5.2014
U.S. historian Timothy Snyder has been writing for the "New York Review of Books" about the upcoming Ukrainian presidential election:
A great deal of Russian media attention is devoted to the Ukrainian far right. There are indeed two far right candidates in this presidential election: Oleh Tyahnybok, the Svoboda party candidate, and Dmitry Yarosh of the Right Sector. They probably have higher name recognition in Russia and in the West, thanks to Russian propaganda, than Petro Poroshenko, the centrist chocolatier who is leading the polls. Each of the far right presidential candidates is polling at 1 percent. Electoral support for the far right in Ukraine, in other words, is by European standards extremely low: a comparison that will be easy to make after European parliamentary elections this Sunday, in which far right parties are expected to do well. And of course the far right is actually in power in Russia itself.
Read the entire article here
14:33
23.5.2014
Ukraine News One: Russian choppers test firepower on eve of #Ukraine election (VIDEO) http://t.co/aR2sMLkWSY
— Kyiv Post (@KyivPost) May 23, 2014
14:39
23.5.2014
Catherine Ashton has also been talking about the presidential poll on Sunday:
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says Ukraine's upcoming presidential election will be a major step toward reducing tensions in the country and restoring political stability.
In a statement issued by her office in Brussels today, Ashton also reiterated the EU's "strongest support to the holding of free, transparent and fair presidential elections on 25 May, allowing the Ukrainian people to choose their own future by peaceful and democratic means."
She added, "Election authorities must be allowed to conduct elections without hindrance throughout the country and domestic and international observers must be allowed to fully fulfil their function."
Ukraine is due to hold a nationwide election Sunday, May 25, but separatist seizures of some electoral commissions in eastern Ukraine have raised doubts about how fully voters in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will participate.
In a statement issued by her office in Brussels today, Ashton also reiterated the EU's "strongest support to the holding of free, transparent and fair presidential elections on 25 May, allowing the Ukrainian people to choose their own future by peaceful and democratic means."
She added, "Election authorities must be allowed to conduct elections without hindrance throughout the country and domestic and international observers must be allowed to fully fulfil their function."
Ukraine is due to hold a nationwide election Sunday, May 25, but separatist seizures of some electoral commissions in eastern Ukraine have raised doubts about how fully voters in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will participate.
15:04
23.5.2014
Tim Judah has written an interesting dispatch from east Ukraine, gauging the atmosphere in Slovyansk ahead of the May 25 presidential poll:
Just as the rebels say that the government and the people who support it are fascists, the government says that all the rebels are terrorists—and in fact neither is true. Between a few in government with an extreme right-wing past and a few in rebel territory who have used extreme violence to seize power, the vast majority of people in the east are simply downtrodden and trapped. Nothing good will come of this conflict for Viktoria, or the Ukrainian soldiers, or Sloviansk’s few hundred armed men. In Kiev, politicians flail, not really knowing what to do, all the while gearing up for Ukraine’s presidential election on May 25. For now that seems as if it might be taking place in another country. It may take months or years of conflict, however, for those in the east to find out if it is another country.
Read more here
15:11
23.5.2014
Here's an interactive map RFE/RL has made of flashpoints in eastern Ukraine ahead of the presidential election (scroll over the red circles for more information):
16:08
23.5.2014
If Donetsk was the Wire...Akhmetov obviously Stringer Bell, Gorlovka rebels rapidly emerging as Marlo's crew. Hmm, not sure this quite works
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) May 23, 2014
16:18
23.5.2014
Courtney Weaver from the FT Magazine has been checking out Crimea some two months after it's annexation:
On the ground, even the most diehard Russia supporters are being forced to reconcile their love for the motherland with unending bureaucratic miseries that seem plucked from the pages of Kafka or Gogol. On the motorway, billboards advertise remedial accounting courses for veteran book-keepers, who will now need to learn Russian accounting standards from scratch to continue practising. On the radio, law firms are recruiting new clients who need help obtaining their new Russian passports, re-registering their land or re-registering their companies. Business advocacy groups are holding daily seminars on everything from how to compete in state auctions to how to make your business comply with Russia’s environmental laws.
Read the entire article here
16:19
23.5.2014
Taking last-gasp DRASTIC measures! RT @NatVasilyevaAP: Tymoshenko goes for a beehive? via @euromaidan pic.twitter.com/pao2kqG465
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) May 23, 2014