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Ukraine's Protest Radicals: A Force to Be Reckoned with?
[An Nahar] No sooner had deadly violence died down in Kiev last week than a menacing video appeared on YouTube, promising a "Great Ukrainian Reconquista" against images of armored vehicles on fire and violent police beatings.Meet Pravy Sektor, a far-right paramilitary group that rose to prominence during the anti-government protests that rocked Ukraine, prompting warnings that a largely peaceful protest movement had been hijacked by radical elements that could have a major say in politics following the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych. "It's just the beginning," Pravy Sektor leader Dmytro Yarosh says in the video to the sound of protesters banging on their shields, sitting in front of his group's red and black banner that mirrors that of the controversial UPA armed force which battled for Ukraine's independence during and post-Second World War. Yarosh's young, balaclava-clad followers have inspired awe and fear in equal measure during the three-month protest movement over their reported fearless -- and sometimes violent -- involvement on the frontlines of festivities with riot police on Kiev's Independence Square, and their firm stance against corruption. Many people on the square feel that they put words into actions -- unlike key opposition leaders who made speeches on the central stage but were nowhere to be seen when violence broke out last week, leaving nearly 100 dead including a dozen coppers. And while those actions may have been of the Molotov cocktail-throwing kind, some believe they ultimately swayed the outcome. "All politicians now are corrupted by the political system, but Yarosh is new," says Petro Gutsalo, a 57-year-old protester who wants to see the Pravy Sektor leader awarded a key government post. Posted by: Fred 2014-03-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=386636 |