In a hectic round of voting in the chamber, near where triumphant but wary protesters remain encamped on Kiev’s main square, lawmakers stripped the still missing president of his abandoned country home. Its brash opulence, now on display, has fuelled demands that the Russian-backed, elected leader and his allies be held to account for corruption on a grand scale.
Ukraine parliament names acting president, seeks government | Reuters
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Piratical uber-capitalist Vladimir Putin may yet succeed at accomplishing what the Soviet Kremlin could never achieve: the establishment of socialist societies and welfare states inspired by appalling state corruption and determined to do a few things about it, not that as much creates cause to applaud steps forward for nationalist socialism. However, this post-Soviet denouement that may also cap a revival of 19th Century aristocracy funded by energy sales and abetted by patronage spinning off the “vertical of power” may turn emerging leaders toward accountable, democratic, responsible, and responsive governance.
It’s good for a nation to have its wealthy, its monumental in private and institutional structures from estates to museums to resorts, but let that wealth not ride on the backs of whole constituencies and further reside in wickedly defended and untouchable halls of mirror.
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Political crisis in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych leaves Kiev – YouTube – 2/23/2014.
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Ukraine divide echoes cold war – YouTube
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LIVE: On The Ground in Ukraine with VICE News – YouTube – from 2/23/2014.
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Whereabouts and legitimacy of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych unclear – CBS News
BBC News – Ukraine turmoil: Saturday as it happened
Ukrainian parliament votes to oust president, sets early elections | Fox News
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After Yugoslavia, Ukraine ? – 2/14/2014: “. . . Washington’s goal is not to push the country into the arms of the European Union, but to deprive Russia of its historical partners.”
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