[lbo-talk] Missing contexts in discussion of the Ukraine

ken hanly northsunm at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 14 18:35:39 PDT 2014


A good example of this is the usual meme in the press about the Crimean parliament being forced to vote no confidence in the Ukrainian government and setting up a new pro-Russian government. There were indeed armed men occupying the building at the time. Here is  the story as told in theWikipedia entry on the Crimean parliament:  

On 27 February 2014, during the 2014 Crimean crisis, Refat Chubarov, leader of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and member of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, said that unknown gunmen seized the Building of the Supreme Council of Crimea on Karl Marx Street and the building of the Council of Ministers on Kirov Avenue in Simferopol.[9] Fifty gunmen occupied the building of the Crimean legislature, barricaded the building and installed machine guns at the front entrance.[citation needed] Roman Sohn from the EUobserver wrote that, "[the gunmen] let in [the Speaker of the Parliament] and the members of the presidium of the Crimean legislature, while denying entry to officials of its executive office."[10] The Council then proceeded to hold an emergency session and passed a motion of no confidence in the Council of Ministers and adopted a resolution to terminate its powers.[9] Such session, however, was described as being, "under siege and in violation of all due process" by Roman Sohn from the EUobserver.[10] The parliament dismissed the Chairman and Prime Minister of Crimea, Anatolii Mohyliov, pursuant to Article 136 of the Constitution of Ukraine, and replaced him de facto with Sergey Aksyonov, a local businessman.[10]

Actually these gunmen had camped out overnight and were there to protect the legislators. Note the date. Here is a report from the day before February 26 when Pro-Ukrainian protesters had disrupted a session of parliament that intended to do exactly what was done next day:

"The storming of the parliament disrupted an extraordinary session in which Crimean lawmakers were debating the future of the peninsula following the ouster of Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Speaking to anti-Russian protesters inside parliament, lawmaker Refat Chubarov, a leader of the Crimean Tatar minority, warned against moves that could see Crimea annexed by Russia.

Chubarav is a supporter of the new Ukrainian authorities.

"We urged [lawmakers] not to convene the session [on the future of Crimea], not to aggravate the situation in Crimea," he said. "It was clear even yesterday that the session was being convened with one single

purpose -- to take actions today which would lead to the separation of Crimea from Ukraine and its unification with Russia." "

  So next day the parliament needed protection from protesters opposed to what the parliament wanted to move before there were ever any gunmen in parliament.

Cheers, ken



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