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[olemars]

Russian government doing their best to defuse the situation.

Reuters is snapping excerpts from a speech by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian minister for foreign affairs.

    RUSSIA’S LAVROV SAYS UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION FAILED TO DELIVER ON DEAL SINGED WITH PRESIDENT YANUKOVICH ON FEB.21
    LAVROV SAYS UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LED BY “ARMED EXTREMISTS AND POGROMISTS” WHOSE ACTIONS POSE DIRECT THREAT TO UKRAINE’S SOVEREIGNTY, CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER
    LAVROV CALLS ON GERMANY, POLAND, FRANCE TO USE INFLUENCE WITH UKRAINE’S OPPOSITION TO ENSURE IMMEDIATE FULFILMENT OF FEB.21 AGREEMENT

[10ebbor10]

No coup in Kiev. Gov. buildings got abandoned. Speaker of Rada elected legally. Pres. VYanukovych has 24h to sign 04 Const. into law

[Sheb]

Pro-unification protests in Sevastopol.

[XXSockXX]

At least the army has announced they will not intervene. Security forces also said in parliament they won't intervene.

Everything else doesn't look so good, looks like the country might break apart. Police is "joining the people" in both parts of the country.

EDIT:
Parliament in Kiev has now impeached Yanukovych, sets presidential elections for May 25.

[10ebbor10]

Well, that's one agreement of the table. If Yanukovich keeps his promise that he will not step down, then I guess we have a problem, and a break-up seems likely.

Edit: Anyway, Lenin is falling all over the place.

[XXSockXX]

Yeah, I wonder how the rest of the country will take this. MPs declared him constitutionally unable to carry out his duties, but if regional governments disagree and Yanukovych himself doesn't accept it, we have a huge problem. Also wonder how Russia will react, they asked the EU to make sure the agreement is kept, but now it's broken.

There are already reports about pro-russian protests in Crimea, but the Tatar minority there is very pro-Maidan. Lot of potential for conflict.

[10ebbor10]

Well, some of the eastern regional parliaments declared the Rada unconstitutionally fit to carry out it's duties, so...

[Sheb]

So, if the 2004 Constitution is back and we have a parliamentary system now, did the new Rada vote in a new government yet?

[10ebbor10]

The constitution isn't back yet. It has passed parliament, but it still needs to be signed by the president, who has now been impeached. Stuff got complicated.

Edit: Anyway, Yulia Tymenshenko has left the hospital in Khariv, so ...

[XXSockXX]

Hm, apparently parliament did not follow the constitutional procedure for deposing the president, I assume because technically the old constitution is still in place.

All important government posts (Ministrys of Defense and Interior, General Prosecutor, President of Parliament) are now held by opposition members.

EU seems to accept it, though they haven't really said much yet.

[10ebbor10]

The EU is going to wait for things to stop changing in their favor before making any complaints whatsoever.

Edit: BBC tells me that Yanukovich apparently doesn't accept the decision to remove him from power.

[XXSockXX]

Problem is, if the impeachment was - even on a technicality - unconstitutional, this is a good argument for anyone who wants to call this a coup.

Tymoshenko is supposed to be on the way to Kiev and may even speak on Maidan. She already announced she's going to run for president in the May elections, no surprise there.

British and German FMs seem to have agreed to support the new government and push for financial help.

Lots of reports about people being shocked by Yanuk's lifestyle as evident from his mansion. That's where all the tax money went apparently.


EDIT:
I also wanted to respond to this earlier point:

remember the polish foreign minister.

Oh yes.... I will.  One of the results of all shit happened in the last three month - we have much less pro-EU guys here after EU did nothing but express their deep concern while situation escalated and when they finally started to act after the many deaths... they offer to leave the murderer in place for some more time

I very much agree that the EU should have acted weeks, if not months, earlier.
However in seeking a compromise with Yanukovych they actually achieved something to move this forward and quite likely to prevent bloodshed. It seems plausible to me that Yanukovych was considering cracking down on the protests with more violent force on a larger scale, so at least the compromise helped to prevent that. The Polish FM might have been right, maybe that was what Yanukovych actually threatened to do in the negotiations.
It's also noteworthy that it was not US diplomacy, which was way more confrontational towards both Yanuk and Russia, that achieved anything here.

[Sergarr]

Yanuk's lifestyle as evident from his mansion. That's where all the tax money went apparently.

How many cars?

[XXSockXX]

Yanuk's lifestyle as evident from his mansion. That's where all the tax money went apparently.

How many cars?

Lots. Also nice house, nice boat, nice zoo.
Collecting classical cars is in the best interest of the nation apparently.

[MarcAFK]

It's not like he has a collection of lambourginis and large african mammals, I don't want to defend him but I doubt His house, boat, zoo and car collection recieved even a small percentage of his wealth, that gold however, I'd like to know more information, what was found, where it was found, it's estimated value etc.
I'm sure he kept most of his funds hidden somewhere far safer than inside a country where many people want him dead.