Gorbachev Calls on Putin and Obama to Intercede in Ukraine
Source: RIA novosti
MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) – Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday called for the leaders of the United States and Russia to prevent further escalation of a dangerous standoff between demonstrators and police in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.
“I ask you to find a way to take a resolute step in helping Ukraine return to a peaceful path of development,” Gorbachev said in the letter, addressed to Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin and posted on his website, Gorby.ru.
At least three demonstrators have died during rallies that began on Sunday in protest of hastily passed legislation curtailing the freedom of assembly in Ukraine.
Police have been accused of using excessive force, while rioters have been seen throwing flaming Molotov cocktails at police lines.
Read more: http://en.ria.ru/world/20140123/186848160/Gorbachev-Calls-on-Putin-and-Obama-to-Intercede-in-Ukraine.html
There is little doubt that Viktor Yanukovych's rule is corrupt. It stands for the interests of the richest few in Ukraine's highly unequal society and is responsible for the brutal suppression of opposition. The majority of protesting Ukrainians hope for a just, fair and democratic society, even if naively connecting this hope to an idealised "Europe".
Yet Euromaidan, Ukraine's pro-EU protest movement, has still not become a point of conflict between the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian society as a whole. According to the polls, support for Euromaidan is heavily concentrated in the western and central regions, while Ukrainians living in the east and the south of the country overwhelmingly disapprove. After mass violent clashes with the police started on Monday, in which a leading role was played by a far-right network of groups called Right Sector, there is no doubt that people in the eastern and southern regions would condemn the protests even more. This is unfortunate because the agenda of the protest has shifted from a desire to be associated with Europe to the struggle against the police state after parliament ripped up the constitution and rushed through laws restricting, among others, the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech.
The Right Sector militants did not appear from nowhere, although many media and liberal protesters preferred to ignore their existence. They were active participants in the protest from the very beginning, interested not so much in European association as the "national revolution". They efficiently infiltrated the volunteer guards of the tent camps.
On 1 December, they were the main force behind the violent attack near the presidential administration, contrary to the popular version that blamed government provocateurs. When, last Sunday, Vitali Klitchko, the most probable next president of Ukraine according to the polls, tried to stop clashes with police, he was booed. Many protesters, who could not imagine themselves throwing stones and molotovs at the police line before, joined the violence of the extreme right, frustrated at the lack of progress after coming each Sunday to listen to the same talks from opposition leaders.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/22/ukraine-protests-europe-far-right-violence
Profile: Ukraine's 'Right Sector' movement.
Since late November, huge crowds have been camped out in central Kiev, opposing the government's partnership with Russia and calling for early elections. But a small number of protesters are thought to have a more violent agenda. The BBC Ukrainian Service looks at this little-known far-right group, the Right Sector.
In the early days of the protests in Kiev, the most radical activists on Independence Square created the Right Sector movement, which took an active part in the clashes with police on 19 January.
This group consists mostly of young men with right-wing views.
They come from different regions of Ukraine, and there are both Ukrainian and Russian-speaking people among them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25826238
Its the Right Movement who use red and black : not to be confused with either red for communism or black for the bloc.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I'm not sure what will satisfy "the opposition" - there seem to be geographical differences within the Ukraine.
What had brought this to a head was the EU trade issue with regard to which there is no sign of the opposition have a viable economic alternative than the status quo with Russia. The cost of going with an EU deal is thought to be c. €220 billion over a number of years which is equal to the aggregate Greek bailout but with no funding method. 
