The Boston Globe:
Ukraine’s interim authorities on Thursday accused fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych of ordering snipers to open fire on protesters and getting help from Russian security agents to battle his own people, but they provided no evidence directly linking him to the bloodbath in Kiev that killed more than 100 people.
Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov also accused former interior minister Vitali Zakharchenko, who was in charge of police, of recruiting gangs of killers, kidnappers, and thugs to terrorize and undermine the opposition during the monthslong protests.
It’s classic Spetsnaz behavior, going back to the Soviet days: Undermine opposition by dishonestly painting them as extreme. The Obama government is engaging in similar tactics, though the Russians (through Yanukovych, its puppet) went the next step and infiltrated some of the protests directly, and killed some of the protesters.
Speaking at a televised news conference, Avakov said police snipers shot at demonstrators near Kiev’s Independence Square, also known as the Maidan, as they walked toward the government district. He said that 17 people were killed by snipers positioned at the October Palace cultural center and that one sniper alone killed as many as eight people.
The Spetsnaz are rumored to be active in eastern Ukraine, across the border from where those thousand of Russian troops are amassed. Their aim would be to stir up what will appear to be anti-Russian protests and violence, to provide Putin an excuse to send in the troops to “protect” ethnic Russians.
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