The Other McCain

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Freedom Wins in Ukraine?

Posted on | February 23, 2014 | 36 Comments

For now, at least, the boot-heel has been lifted:

KIEV, Ukraine — Abandoned by his own guards and reviled across the Ukrainian capital but still determined to recover his shredded authority, President Viktor F. Yanukovych fled Kiev on Saturday to denounce what he called a violent coup, as his official residence, his vast, colonnaded office complex and other once impregnable centers of power fell without a fight to throngs of joyous citizens stunned by their triumph.
While Mr. Yanukovych’s nemesis, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, was released from a penitentiary hospital, Parliament found the president unable to fulfill his duties and exercised its constitutional powers to set an election for May 25 to select his replacement. But with both Mr. Yanukovych and his Russian patrons speaking of a “coup” carried out by “bandits” and “hooligans,” it was far from clear that the day’s lightning-quick events would be the last act in a struggle that has not just convulsed Ukraine but expanded into an East-West confrontation reminiscent of the Cold War.

We can only wait and see what develops from here.

 

Category: Ukraine

Comments

36 Responses to “Freedom Wins in Ukraine?”

  1. ariyadesai01
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 11:33 am

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM Freedom Wins in Ukraine? http://t.co/5anDN5agvV #TCOT

  2. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 10:35 am

    This is one way to tell the good guys in Ukraine: http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2014/02/so-who-are-good-guys-in-ukraine.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLZ7pWtyLCY

  3. Max
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 10:57 am

    Freedom has not won yet. My guess is Putin is not going to let this pass without a fight, maybe a full blown war.

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 11:29 am

    True about it not being won (which is why I suspect there was a ? on this post). Hopefully there is no full scale war.

  5. WarEagle82
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 11:32 am

    I am quite concerned this is not yet over in any sense of the word.

    Military satellites are almost certainly watching Russian troop concentrations along the border and no one can rule out some staged pretext like “Gleiwitz” anywhere along the border to give the Russian Army a “justification” to move in to any part of the Ukraine they choose to occupy.

    The Winter Olympics closing ceremony is later today and I think we have to be concerned once the curtain in Sochi falls.

    These people are lawless, Communist thugs and they, like Obama, don’t like people opposing their power grabs…

  6. Taxpayer1234
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 11:59 am

    I read some bizarre reports that Soros groups funded the unrest. Do you think there’s any truth to that?

  7. Dana
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 12:12 pm

    The more important question: This site has page tabs for “Home,” “About Robert Stacey Stacy McCain” and “About Smitty” in the upper right hand corner, but is sadly, blatantly, missing an About Wombat-socho page. Why is this injustice being perpetrated, and for how long will it continue?

  8. Dana
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 12:16 pm

    I could actually see Ukraine divided, between the more European-looking west, and the more Russified east. Perhaps Vladimir Putin could demand the annexation of the Sudeten Russians as a start, something that man of them would actually support.

  9. Ukraine: R.S. McCain waits for the next shoe to drop. | The Rhetorican
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 1:06 pm

    […] Ukraine: R.S. McCain waits for the next shoe to drop. […]

  10. Matt_SE
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 1:12 pm

    The “resolution” of the crisis is the work of Putin.
    That is no conspiracy theory…some background:

    Ukraine has been labeled as one of the “emerging markets” countries for years now. Like its companions in the EM, Ukraine has suffered a reversal of fortunes since around June of 2013. (many will say it’s the result of Fed tapering…I have problems with that narrative, but for another post)
    More recently, they decided to let their currency devalue. This precipitated some type of crisis and it seemed their only hope to stabilize the situation was an infusion of money from Russia.

    A few days ago, the Russians publicly announced that the stabilization deal was on hold, saying that “they couldn’t be sure the money wouldn’t be misused by the Ukrainian government.” You could either read that as concern for the safety of the protestors (HA!), or concern that Yanukovych might run off with the money.

    In any event, without stabilization money, the Ukrainian economy would collapse. Yanukovych would have an increasingly hard time paying the security forces. On top of this, the Russian announcement was the equivalent of the “kiss of death” for Yanukovych’s regime…a public vote of no confidence. That emboldens any would-be replacements to his regime, and he knew it.

    THAT is why he left.

    The only mystery in my mind is what Putin is getting out of this.

  11. Matt_SE
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 1:25 pm

    “From @_DuncanC: There’s a power vacuum in #Ukraine. These men are charge of #Kiev’s Independence Square for now”

    They look like “the first 400 people listed in the [Kiev] telephone directory.” Better than the apparatchiks/intelligensia.

  12. Matt_SE
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 1:44 pm

    I think I just figured it out:

    Ukraine was on the verge of an open civil war, in which case Putin would lose control. In that event, the only way to maintain control would be to roll Russian tanks into Ukraine.
    That would have definitely hurt Putin on the world stage.
    Putin did this to defuse the situation at least temporarily, and give himself breathing room to reassess the situation and his options. There is also the hope that the “rope-a-dope” tactics may fatally bleed the steam out of the revolution.

    There was probably doubt in Putin’s mind that Yanukovych would resign if told to do so, since it would effectively be the end of his political career. So Putin made the withdrawal of economic support public, to force the issue. He has the fig leaf that this decision was motivated by something other than his own self-interest.

    If that analysis is correct, then the protestors haven’t “won” anything. Look for Putin to quietly consolidate control again under phony “reforms” and a new boss (same as the old boss).

  13. Socialism: Organized Evil
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 1:49 pm

    Putin has at least 10x the intelligence of our resident marxist agitator.

  14. Matt_SE
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 1:56 pm

    It doesn’t matter what Soros or Obama do. The shots are clearly being called by Putin.

  15. Matt_SE
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 1:59 pm

    As I posted above, I think Yanukovych’s “resignation/flight” happened precisely because the Russians don’t want to invade Ukraine. We’ll find out soon enough; mainly, right after the results of the special elections come in (May 25).

  16. Socialism: Organized Evil
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 2:44 pm

    I doubt it. Putin’s too clever for that.

  17. Wombat_socho
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 3:09 pm

    As the Unpaid Blog Intern and Token Papist, I’m happy enough to get my gruel ration in a timely manner.

  18. Dana
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 3:14 pm

    We Papists are not tokens, and finding out that you are a fellow Catholic is more than enough for me to start the Promote Wombat-socho Campaign!

  19. David R. Graham
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 3:20 pm

    I think “abandoned by his own guards” is the important bit. Only the start, of course, but the prius of a rebuild, if one is to occur.

    Russia cannot occupy Ukraine whole. The eastern part, yes, where they would be welcomed. They have neither troops nor logistics to take the whole land area. I doubt they have will, either. They would have to mount a mass extermination campaign, as Stalin did, in the western part of the land area, but that would rip up key infrastructure of theirs because the people there would not just sit for it, as before. I suspect they will be content with the eastern part of the so-called country and let the Westerners, who think “Europe” to their devices.

    All but the first of that is speculation, of course. The first bit, is the pattern to watch for elsewhere. The abandonment. But that will not happen without, as in Kiev, a prior, sustained effusion of blood. Soldiers do not like shooting civilians and the Russian Army has professionalized since the goon squads Stalin sent into Ukraine (comparable to the einsatzgruppen [thugs] Nazis sent in behind the Wehrmacht, who, as professionals, would not countenance exterminations, as the Nazis knew).

    It was the professional Red Army and their family members who got the Soviet to move back from Afghanistan. Everyone is watching to see when/if here their own guards uncover protectees. It is how tyrants fall. Tyrants are not supported by good-will.

  20. DaveO
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 3:22 pm

    You’re probably right. Putin has only gained goodwill from western Europe at this point, and the revolutionaries in Ukraine have changed leaders, but not the problems that lead to revolution. Once the MSM goes silent on the Ukraine, Putin and Obama will make their signature moves.

  21. MichaelAdams
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 3:49 pm

    They look like duck hunters, in my part f the world, down to the pot bellies. Good old boys if ever there were. I can only wish them well, if for that reason alone. (Yeah, plus many other reasons.)

  22. JeffS
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 4:14 pm

    Freedom wins this round. The corrupt totalitarians, aided by Putin, will try again.

  23. Max
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 5:33 pm

    Too clever for it huh… it worked for him in Georgia. Putin’s is not clever he is a unashamed thug.

  24. Socialism: Organized Evil
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 5:56 pm

    Disagree.

    Putin could be a valuable ally against the ideology of liberalism, against islam-ism, and against the Chi-coms.

    IMO, we have a vested interest in allying with Putin, at least temporarily, against those forces.

  25. WarEagle82
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 5:57 pm

    I hope you are right but I wouldn’t bet much on it. Russia is bent on dominating Ukraine and the rest of the FSU and that will not change any time soon.

    The Russian threat to an independent, democratic Ukraine remains real…

  26. Nan
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 6:38 pm

    I’m praying for the intercession of St. Olga for Ukraine. Olga was the regent, wanting to preserve the land for her son after her husband’s death and let’s just say she wasn’t such a nice girl. Note that Olga was an early convert and grandmother to Prince Vladimir who converted Kievan Rus to Christianity.

  27. Max
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 7:55 pm

    Ah, a admirer of fascist tyrants… never mind.

  28. Socialism: Organized Evil
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 8:26 pm

    There are three current threats to our sacred Constitution:

    – The intellectual vanguard of liberalism
    – Jihadis subscribing to islam-ism
    – The Chi-coms

    The Russians aren’t one of them.

  29. Bob Belvedere
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 10:45 pm

    Just as Hitler was a valuable ally against Bolshevism, eh?

  30. Bob Belvedere
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 10:48 pm

    It would seem the Ukrainian President has fled to the Eastern part of the country and some old Cold Warriors think this may be the first move in a declaration of the succession of East Ukraine.

  31. Bob Belvedere
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 10:52 pm

    Fortunately, it seems that the Viking Spirit still exists in Kiev,

  32. Socialism: Organized Evil
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 11:04 pm

    I don’t think anyone can make a reasonable argument that Putin is equivalent to Hitler.

    Putin’s a Christian, I’m a Christian, and I stand with Christians against those who attack our families, our property, and our religion.

    In case you haven’t noticed, we have a delusional communist Kenyan occupying our white house.

  33. Bob Belvedere
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 11:42 pm

    Wow…you are delusional.

  34. Socialism: Organized Evil
    February 23rd, 2014 @ 11:57 pm

    Lobbing ad hominems proves nothing.

    Which fact are you disputing?

  35. @KathieGriffin 360? | Regular Right Guy
    February 24th, 2014 @ 4:25 pm

    […] Freedom Wins in Ukraine? […]

  36. Wombat_socho
    February 24th, 2014 @ 10:08 pm

    Guys. No. Please, STOP.