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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Leftists, nationalists confront each other in downtown Kiev |
| 2009-05-18 |
| Kiev’s central square and adjacent thoroughfare, Kreshchatik, may become a place of confrontation between left-wing parties and nationalists shortly. The first all-Ukraine social-nationalist congress is scheduled to be held there on Saturday. Its organisers plan to announce their own action plan in order to “build great Ukraine”. The Communist Party urged its supporters to “fight advancing fascism”. In a statement released earlier in the day, the party condemned what it called to be a “sabbath” of nationalists. “The fact that the holding of such a congress has become possible in the centre of the country that paid the price of millions of lives for the defeat of fascism, in the city where baby Yar is, the biggest common grave in history where the victims of Nazi executioners and their OUN [Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists] henchmen are buried, evokes wrath and indignation,” the statement said. The Communist Party blamed the revival of neo-fascism on the president “whose regime from its very first day has been seeking to rehabilitate and impose fascism”. The participants in the congress plan to organise a torch march in Kiev. They have also made a statement, in which they warned of grave consequences for the country if its leadership is not changed. “The old political forces, ideologies and generations cannot change the country,’ social nationalist leaders said and promised to “restore order in Ukraine”. Meanwhile, Kiev is celebrating Day of Europe. Its main mass events are scheduled to take place in Kreshchatik. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #1 Nice try TASS. Don't you mean “build greater Russia”? Ukraine lost 1/2 its population in just 30 years under the benevolent care of Mother Russia. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-05-18 19:54 |