Protesters Storm Kharkiv Theater Thinking It Was City Hall

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Source: Moscow Times

Pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine mistook a theater for the city hall and stormed the wrong building, a local journalist said, citing the case as evidence that the protesters were not local.

Protesters who took over Kharkiv City Hall over the weekend first broke into the town's opera and ballet theater, but left upon finding a concert hall inside, journalist Vyacheslav Mavrichev said on his Facebook page.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating "separatist unrest" in Kharkiv and eastern cities Donetsk and Lugansk, while officials say that many pro-Russia protesters in east Ukraine may in fact be Russian.

On Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was "strong evidence" to suggest some of these demonstrators were paid and were not local residents."


Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/protesters-storm-kharkiv-theater-thinking-it-was-city-hall/497709.html

[cosmicone]

1. So now Facebook entries by one person

become corroborated and authenticated news stories?

[karynnj]

6. Many things that you claim vs Ukraine are not sourced any better

I guess it bothers you that this does actually suggest that at least some protesters were not local. It also suggests that they were organized and moving as a group. (PS No one had a phone with GPS and a navigation program? Maybe their maps only included Russia. )

It is not likely that many people INDEPENDENTLY made the same error and went to the theatre. How long can you live in a reasonably small town and not know where city hall is? I would be surprised if it was longer than one month. (I know within one month of moving to Burlington VT, we had gone to both the main theatre and the town hall -- with absolutely no difficulty.

[dionysus]

8. that's rich coming from someone who pushes pure kremlin propaganda!

[dipsydoodle]

2. 70 were arrested

So it shouldn't be any big deal finding out they were and from where.

I'm surprised Kiev hasn't already announced that.

[KamaAina]

3. How do you say "teabagger" in Ukrainian?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. LOL nt

[OKNancy]

5. I saw someone say this on Ronan Farrows show yesterday

She is Ukrainian. She called them "tourists" - Russians carted in to do these demonstrations.

[penultimate]

7. I'd assume those local to the city would know what buildings were what...

[DavidDvorkin]

12. Good point.

[blackspade]

9. Oops!

Pro-Russian fascist thugs not Ukrainian natives? Who would have thunk it?

[Igel]

10. There's a middle ground.

It shouldn't be excluded because it's very plausible.

They're not local. They're not Russian citizens. They're from the 'burbs and surrounding areas--Russian-speaking, ethnic Russians, but not from Kharkiv.

There's a frequent backdrop to protests in these cities: tour buses and railway stations. Both are more than capable of hauling in hundreds from surrounding areas, meaning that a crowd of 3000 for a city of 1.3 million might be even less impressive when it's 3000 for a city of 1.3 million and an area that actually includes 3 million. (All numbers made up--I don't feel like looking up Kharkiv's actual population or the Russian-speaking population of the surrounding oblast.)

[uhnope]

11. deja vu...Russian soldiers in 1968 shot up Prague's National Museum thinking it was City Hall

during the invasion of Czechoslovakia where the Soviets were "invited" to come in

Sitting at the top of this Square, the first thing that you notice is these many light colored patchess along much of the Museum's façade. These patches are a result of Soviet bullets hitting the Museum during their crackdown against the 1968 Prague Spring uprising.