Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Not jumping for joy: Ukraine, a year later — RT Op-Edge

Just over a year ago, thousands of Ukrainians took to Kiev's main square, angry at oligarchs and corruption. But instead of “Europe” and prosperity, they got a coup, more oligarchy, and war.

During the three-month “people power” spectacle in Kiev's Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) that began on November 21, 2013, one of the protesters' favorite chants was “Who doesn't jump is a Moskal” (a derogatory term for Russians). After three months of “jumping” - which involved attacking the police, attempting to storm government buildings, and cheering US and European officials who came to support them, the protesters overthrew the legally elected president and establish their own government on February 22, 2014. It has been nine months since then – and a whole year since the “Maidan” protests began; let's try to see what they've been “jumping” for.

Much like the 2004 “Orange Revolution,” the Maidan protest was an exercise in perception management. Officially, the reason the protesters gathered was the government's balking at signing the EU accession treaty. A TV, internet and social media campaign – the very name “EuroMaidan” was a Twitter hashtag coined by some clever PR professional – got the people riled up against the government presented as corrupt, incompetent and selfish.

Was this so? Part of the problem with the EU treaty was that it demanded Ukraine restructure its entire apparatus of state and society to the Union's standards, which would have cost something like $19 billion a year for the next decade (per The Telegraph). But Brussels was willing to offer a paltry $750 million (€610 million) in loans. Ukraine needed much more just to stay solvent. It was, by all metrics, a bad deal for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia was offering $15 billion in favorable loans – and warning that if Ukraine signed a treaty with the EU, that would mean breaking the free trade treaty it had with Russia (and several other countries), causing further economic losses. But the Maidan organizers spun this as Russia trying to “steal Ukraine's European future.”

Complete story at - Not jumping for joy: Ukraine, a year later — RT Op-Edge

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