Russia says the unidentified men are pro-russian self-defense militias, Ukraine says they're Russians in neutral uniforms. Apparently they have no signs whatsoever on their cars and uniforms:
The airports seem back in Ukrainian control, but some access streets are still blocked. Combined with the reported fleet and helicopter activities I'd say the Russians in neutral uniform scenario seems more likely to me.
Don't necessarily see what the goal is though, I guess support for Crimean secession. I still think they are narrowly going to avoid any real escalation.
EDIT: I see this has already been posted in the Eurothread.
The press conference with Yanuk must have been hilarious indeed. He still considers himself President. He denies having money in other countries (you know, the accounts Switzerland just froze), and claims all the state's money went to paying pensions, not to him.
He hasn't met Putin yet, which I guess shows how important Putin considers him to be.
All i saw was one guy making this comments along a bizzare uniforms discussion. hardly a serious discussion.
so, svoboda aren't neo-nazis?
No, there was more. Actually some discussion about Svoboda started in the Eurothread quite a while ago, but there was some in this thread too. Basically while Svoboda are nationalists (and maybe more nationalistic than Western Europe is normally comfortable with), they are not Neo-Nazis.
The guys that look like Neo-Nazis are for the most part from the Right Sector, another nationalist organisation. It's my understanding that this organisation is strongly nationalistic with (by European standards) far-right opinions, but isn't really Neo-Nazi as a whole either. Some elements among them could probably be called that, but they don't account for the majority of the protesters.
There was also something about a rabbi calling the Jewish community in Kiev to leave the country, but that turned out to be Russian propaganda. German journalists talking with rabbis in Kiev found them very supportive of the revolution and not much more concerned than anybody would be with a revolution going on.
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Topic: UR's Post-USSR politics megathread (Read 311217 times)