UKRAINE CRACKS DOWN ON ANTI-NATO PROTESTERS

The Free Crimea reports, citing reliable sources, that an unknown gas has been apparently used against protesters near the Shirokiy Lan shooting range, Nikolaev area. The incident occurred at 00.20, on July, 17 when an automobile convoy transporting NATO troops for joint maneuvers with the Ukrainian Army was heading for Shirokiy Lan. A crowd of about 150 anti-NATO protesters were standing along the road voicing their disapproval of the military exercises. Suddenly, some of them felt a malaise, irritation of eyes and respiratory system. Almost 15 people suffered from the effects of the unknown chemical agent sprayed on them presumably from the passing vehicules. Three persons were hospitalized, one of them – a young girl from Balaklava (Sevastopol area, Crimea) is in a serious condition. The anti-NATO activists demand an investigation. They threaten the authorities with civil disobedience acts in case of a cover-up. The Ukrainian regime ignores the protesters. It seems tightening up pressure on them. Tuesday, anti-NATO protest organizer in Odessa Valery Kaurov was arrested after a Way of Cross held to commemorate the 89th anniversary of the assassination of the Russian Royal Family. Mr. Kaurov faces a stiff fine and incarceration for, as police say, violating the rules of holding public events. The Odessa city authorities had issued a permit for the Way of Cross. However, police maintains that the marchers have deviated from the planned itinerary. Ukrainian media downplay the gas incidents and depict anti-NATO protesters as “communists” or “pro-Russians”.

RUSSIAN POET PUSHKIN UNWELCOME IN UKRAINE

A group of vandals, presumably Ukrainian nationalists, threw solar oil on the bust of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin mounted on the building of Russian Cultural Centre in Lvov and set fire to it. They also smashed all the windows in the building and tried to set fire on the staircase going up to the attic. The Russian Centre in Lvov had often been a target of violent outbursts by unknown attackers. Police had never made any arrests. Many Russians in Lvov believe that the city officials are either in connivance with the local radicals or simply close the eyes on their deeds. The bust of Pushkin made out of synthetic matters was burnt down. It cannot be restored. The incident happened two days before the Nazi march in Kiev. Saturday, veterans of the Galicia SS Division are planning to walk down the central Kreshchatik street in full uniform accompanied by their admirers. Chief of the Presidential Administration Victor Baloga called on the head of the secret police and the home minister to provide security of the marchers. Volunteers from the Crimea and other Russian speaking areas are heading for Kiev to stage counter-rallies. Western democracies are not reacting to the revival of Nazi rituals in the Ukraine.

SEVASTOPOL MOTHERS ON HUNGER STRIKE

A group of Mother-Heroines from Sevastopol has spent a week trying to get attention of president Yushchenko to their plight. They came to the Ukrainian capital with their numerous families. In daytime they picket the Secretariat of Yushchenko. At nights they sleep in the hall of the main railroad station. The women live in squalid conditions in Sevastopol. The authorities promised them apartments back in the nineties but did not deliver on their promises. One of the protesters Antonina Kolobova said that during her first trip to Kiev a year ago, she had been received by Mr. Yushchenko. The president ticked off his men and gave to Kolobova the number of his cell phone. The woman have dialed it many times to hear only the message: “the customer is unavailable”. The protesters are holding a hunger strike. Some of their children who joined their parents passed out and were hospitalized. Ukrainian officials going in and out of the Secretariat either ignore the strikers or shout abuse at the. City official from Sevastopol Baziv insulted the striking mothers. He called one of them a parasite and said that she should sweep the streets instead of complaining.

PRO-RUSSIAN GROUP BANNED IN SEVASTOPOL

An arbitration authority in Sevastopol, so called “Tribunal of commerce” banned a youth organisation whose militancy and pro-Russian stand have been irritating the Ukrainian occupant regime. The Proryv (breakthrough) was founded in August, 2005. The group has a singnificative following in Sevastopol and several other Crimean cities as well outside of the Ukraine (Transdnitria, South Ossetia and Abkhasia). The Proryv has been staging numerous colourful protests against Ukrainian rule in the Crimea. Last summer, Ukrainian authorities deported the leader of the group Alexei Dobychin to Moscow. The most spectacular action by the Proryv was held almost a year ago on January 20, 2006.
A group of young people people dug a trench on the Chongarsky isthmus (connecting the Crimean peninsula to the continent) to demonstrate that the Crimea was cutting itself off from the mainland Ukraine. They Proryv members said they had been inspired by an episode from the Island of Crimea novel by famous Russian writer Vasily Aksenov. The police failed to build up a case against the Proryv. The charges of violation of the Ukrainian sovereignty laid by police did not stand in court. During the investigation, Ukrainian security agents conficated a copy of Vasily Aksenov novel from one of the activists. The case of the Proryv was heard in the absence of the accused on December 21. The organisation learned about the ruling only recently from the Internet. Lawyer for the Proryv Oksana Denisova said that she had filed an apeal.

TARASIUK POSING AS A BONA FIDE MINISTER

Boris Tarasiuk, sacked by parliament as foreign minister, visited Prague where Czech authorities received him as a bona fide chief of the Ukrainian diplomacy. This visite infuriated Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych who asked Ukrainian prosecutors to take measures against leader of the nationalist Rukh Party. Mr. Tarasiuk has full support of Victor Yushchenko. The Ukrainian president reappointed him as foreign minister despite objections from parliament and the Cabinet of ministers. Mr. Yanukovitch says that he did not authorize Tarasiuk’s trip to Prague. According to the Prime Minister, Mr. Tarasiuk’s activities harmed the Ukraine’s image.
Tuesday, the Czech Ambassador in Kiev was summoned to the Cabinet of Ministers for explanation. The Ukrainian government wants to know why Tarasiuk was received in Prague as a foreing minister of the Ukraine. The Ukrainian Government issued a statement reminding that Mr. Tarasiuk had been fired by parliament on December 1, 2006, and that he cannot represent the Ukraine abroad.

SUSPECTED MASS MURDERER PROMOTED TO SBU DEPUTY CHIEF

General Guennadi Moskal has had only an eight month stint as President Yushchenko’s eye in the Crimea. On January 9 Mr. Yushchenko relieved him of his duties as his representative in the Russian-speaking peninsula and appointed Moskal as a second in command at the Ukrainian secret police (SBU). General Moskal had started his career as a police officer. He served all political regimes in the Ukraine: from communists to Kuchma and to orange tin pot dictator Victor Yushchenko. From 1997 to 2000 he was a chief policeman in the Crimea and got known for his ruthlessness and intrigue. His Crimean colleagues say that Mr. Moskal played off one criminal group against the other and manipulated political clans taking shady business schemes under his control. After former president Leonid Kuchma dismissed him from the Crimean police Moskal has had several appointments in regional administrations. As a local SBU chief in Dnepropetrovsk Moskal was entrusted to prepare Kuchma’s visit to the city that counted many homeless people. General Moskal swiftly got rid of the city’s shameful eyesores. Witnesses say that he rounded the beggars up put them on a barge and let it sail along the Dnepr river. When the barge came to its destination in a desert place 36 out of 150 passengers were missing. There is no precise information of what happened to those who disappeared. Some evidence suggests that they were thrown overboard. The survivors were let go in the wild. Their fate is unknown. Charges against Mr. Moakal were laid. Later, they were unexpectedly dropped.

TOAST TO DEMISE OF THE OCCUPANT REGIME IN CRIMEA

In its New Year message the Crimean Committee (www.freecrimea.org) expresses hope that 2007 will mark the beginning of the end of the occupant Ukrainian regime. The Committee points out to the events of 2006 leading up to such a conclusion: withdrawal under popular pressure of NATO troops who arrived in the peninsula for military exercises with the Ukrainian armed forces, rising awareness among the Crimeans about true intentions of politicians in Kiev, growing activities of such pro-Russian organizations as Sevastopol-Crimea-Russia and the Proryv (Breakthrough). The outgoing year has seen growing dissatisfaction among Crimean Tatars. It has been revealed at the recent Tatar national Convention the Kurultay. Some rank and file delegates have openely defied the self proclaimed (and illegitimate according to Ukrainian law) “Tatar national parliament”, the Medjlis. Twelve delegates to the convention have been expelled for their dissenting views by order of Tatar leader Mustafa Djemilev. Mr. Djemilev could not tolerate dissidents who refused to follow the official line of sucking up to the Ukrainian state. Several days after the Kurultay ended, a group of Tatars announced a new initiative: the creation of a popular movement for reunion with Russia. “It’s a return to the sources of the Crimean Tatar Movement for the Right to live in the Crimea”, the message says. “The founders of this movement insisted on re-establishment of the Crimean Tatar autonomy within Russia and not the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Even less so within the today’s Ukraine, a unitarian state, intolerant of any autonomy and keen on dismantling of the Autonomous Crimean Republic”.
The Crimean Committee reminds that the Crimea rejected the orange regime from the beginning. And now the Crimean population hates it even more. The consequence of this hatred was setting up of resistance movements. “The year 2007 will see the agony of the Ukrainian regime in the Crimea continue, says the Crimean Committee. And midnight December 31 for let’s raise our glasses filled with champagne for its final demise and its kicking out from the Crimea! Happy New Year!”