Anti-government
protesters continue to fortify their barricades to block the police
from forcing them out of Independence Square in Kiev yesterday.
Photograph: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
As a horde of big men in masks, helmets and black
body armour bore down on them in the freezing early hours of Wednesday,
protesters in Kiev feared another beating from riot police.
Led
by pop stars, priests and politicians on a stage in the middle of
Independence Square, the crowd fended off rising fear and biting cold by
singing the national anthem and chanting the slogans of their
“revolution”.
“Shame! Down with the gang!” they screamed at President Viktor Yanukovich and his government; “Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the heroes!” they shouted, breathing new life into the
rallying cry of Ukrainian guerrillas who fought Nazi and Soviet
occupiers in the 1940s.
Another slogan, incongruous but equally
vehement, is surely unique to this uprising: “The youth of the nation –
for Euro-integration!”
These Ukrainians were declaring their commitment to the bruised and battered European Union, or rather to ideals that have become obscured to most of the people who already live there.
“We
know it’s not paradise in the EU. And it would be hard for Ukraine, a
big and poor country, to integrate in Europe,” says student protester
Oleh Bondarenko. “But we are at a crossroads and have to choose. If we
go towards Russia
things will only get worse. More poverty, more corruption, less
freedom. The European way will be hard but it gives hope of a better
life. That’s why we are here.”
He was standing on
Independence Square – Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Ukrainian – which has
been dubbed “EuroMaidan” by participants in what some here are calling
their “Euro-revolution”. Smaller EuroMaidans have sprung up in towns and
cities across the country, flying the EU banner alongside the
blue-and-yellow Ukrainian colours and red-and-black nationalist flags.
They took to the streets late last month, when Mr Yanukovich
unexpectedly postponed the signing of a political and trade pact with
the EU that would tilt Ukraine strongly away from Russia.
Moscow
warned it would slash trade with Ukraine if the deal went through, and
is offering its neighbour money, cheap energy and a place in a nascent
“Eurasian Union” of ex-Soviet states.
‘Civilisational choice’The rival deals largely relate to trade, but their significance goes much deeper. Twenty-two years after the Soviet empire crumbled, Ukraine must choose whether to return to a Russian-dominated bloc or make a decisive turn to the West. That is why people on all sides are saying this 46million-strong country now faces a “civilisational choice” over its future.
At a conference in Kiev this summer called Orthodox-Slavic Values: The Foundation of Ukraine’s Civilisational Choice, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin
said Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians shared “spiritual values that
make us a single people” and a long history that is “the foundation
upon which we can build new integration ties”.
While much of southern and eastern Ukraine feels very
close to Russia and trusts Moscow more than Brussels, western Ukraine
is linked more strongly to Poland
and central Europe. In any case, millions of young people across this
country are less interested in history than Transparency International’s
recent announcement that Ukraine is Europe’s most corrupt country,
coming 144th in a ranking of 177 states; the more corrupt the State, the
higher it is ranked. Russia came 127th.
Riddled with corruptionUkraine has been riddled with corruption since independence in 1991, under pro-EU and pro-Russian governments, but it has got worse since Yanukovich took power in 2010. He has also overseen the jailing of opposition politicians, including former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, a sharp concentration of political and financial power among allies and relatives, and an increase in state pressure on law courts and the media.
To many Ukrainians, these trends show that
Yanukovich is already taking his country down a Russian, rather than
European, path. His use of riot police convinced many demonstrators
that, if these protests fail, a move towards authoritarianism is likely.
“The EU wouldn’t let him get away with these things,” says Halyna, a
student from western Ukraine.
“But in Russia the situation is even worse –
the Maidan couldn’t happen there. Putin would let Yanukovich do what he
wants with us.”
The blue-and-gold flags wrapped
around snow-dusted shoulders and rippling atop barricades on the Maidan
are the same as those flying in 28 states where the EU often seems to
signify only discontent over austerity, bailouts, bankers, bureaucracy,
immigration and the single currency.
Democracy and toleranceBut here, it means something else: the possibility of more prosperity, freedom, democracy and tolerance, a place where the rule of law generally works, basic rights are usually protected, and life is a little less precarious than in today’s Ukraine.
Democracy and toleranceBut here, it means something else: the possibility of more prosperity, freedom, democracy and tolerance, a place where the rule of law generally works, basic rights are usually protected, and life is a little less precarious than in today’s Ukraine.
Those who consider the protesters naive should look at what they see as their country’s alternative – a future tied to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other ex-Soviet nations, where the individual can be crushed at any time by the state and well connected businessmen.
Ukrainians
attempted to switch course with the 2004 Orange Revolution, but lost
their way. Now the children of that time are trying again, and have
inspired many older people to give change another chance. “Yanukovich
only talks about maintaining order and stability,” says Halyna.
“That’s fine for him and his cronies. The rest of us want something new.
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