Ukraine: Pyrotechnics all over

Subject:  Ukraine: Pyrotechnics all over
Date:     Sat, 22 Feb 2014
From:     Claudiu Secara <claudiu@algora.com>

We all are trying to make sense of the events in Ukraine, but let me share
some of my thoughts/impressions.

1. One has a feeling that there are a lot of farcical elements to the whole
story. Something is not real, just like many of the other “live” on-TV
historical events of the last 30 years, including the fact that this
crescendo was staged to coincide with the Sochi Olympics.

2. A lot of the characters and players are “identified” as pro-this and
pro-that, in an over simplified manner, as if to aid the audience in
following good guys and bad guys.

3. The so-called leaders of the protesters, K and Y, ended up compromised
for signing onto Friday’s agreement; and a lot of other actors are being
exposed (McCain, Nuland, Pyatt, et al.). Even the Polish Foreign Minister
warned the “opposition” that if they didn’t sign the agreement, they would
end up with martial law and they would all be dead. But the opposite seems
to be happening.

4. Now, we have Timoshenko back on stage. But who is Timoshenko? Her crime,
under the very “pro-Russian” Yanukovich, was that she clinched a gas deal
with Russia that made Ukraine subservient to Moscow. How “anti-Russian”
could she be?!

5. We saw the Police commander in Maidan Square saying to one of RT’s
reporters, we can push these few hundred guys out of here with our bare
hands, but we have not received an order to do so.

This could rather be seen as something else altogether, like setting the
stage for more “street” revolutions by special forces, elsewhere, one guess
would be in Western Europe.

At the same time, we read all of a sudden of a serious proposal to split
California into six states!

This is not quite what meets the eye, we all agree. And as the Olympics
close tomorrow, this episode is probably also coming to a close, one way or
another. Although it was not done yet on Friday, and we still have another
day to go…

Overall, the sense of farce, including nightly pyrotechnics in order to give
it a false sense of drama, is the lasting impression. The soap opera is not
over yet, but which way is it going?