"Who is the provocateur I provocateur?!" – strained swinging, a large man in camouflage pants hit my a random stranger. The one standing on the parapet of the monument to Lenin (Bessarabka, Kiev), fell to the roadway. The big guy's name is Damian, he's covered with tattoos with tridents and very drunk. An hour later we were drinking vodka in a strange, similar to an off-shore betting office premises on Khreshchatyk.
"Look, what a beauty. The shaft I ordered, and the blade is real, not tourist crafts" - shows me a heavy two-handed battle axe to his bearded friend, also covered in tattoos and, apparently, a very respected person here. To the leaders of the opposition, they are indifferent, and to Yanukovych and "Berkut" – with contempt. "You must understand, you are tired, you can't hear me. You in Moscow hipsters took to the Swamp, stood and left, and the whole city gathered. One and a half million!" he said.
Despite the wicked-looking axe, it's hard not to fall in love with Kyiv protest. He is very handsome, physically strong and welcoming. In the seized building of the Kiev administration my first fed. There's an impromptu press conference held by opposition politicians – people to whom the Kiev revolution is down, allowing them to fulfil a technical role to install the toilets, turn on "Okean Elzy", to distribute tents and hot tea.
"The eagle" proved to be less hospitable host: during the riot at the Bank where he stormed the presidential Administration, I got a serving of tear gas. "Only the eyes are not washed," was instructed immediately jumped with a bottle of water the boy in the mask. Standing beside his colleague, also with a covered face, nervously wound on the hand chain.
The special forces before the attack was delayed several hours, endured attacks by fire and stones, stood a live chain in front of the tractor, which became a local symbol of the Kiev revolution. It has expropriated a little higher up the Bank, at the intersection with College, the same people in masks, with chains, iron rods and stones. After several unsuccessful attempts to storm the administration they responded with stun grenades. "And three KAMAZ trucks with billions of dollars already went to the residence of Yanukovych", - talked to others. Here, in contrast to the Maidan, dominated by red and black, not yellow-blue flags.
Then "Berkut" went on the attack. The special forces were able to solve the task to sweep the streets in just 2-3 minutes. As a result - tens victims with broken heads and bruised, among them many journalists. "The protest has no leaders, and I would have them wiped for a minute and took the administration," said the Kiev revolutionaries. The leaders arrived a little later Klitschko at the intersection of Banking and the Institute exhorted the congregation drove them to independence and called those who tried to storm the administration, provocateurs.
The revenge of the protesters managed to take over the apartment, where he tried to knock down a monument to Lenin: the first units of "Berkut" trampled under foot, and the bus on which they came, broke. "Don't shoot, please," I asked lying on the asphalt commando. The people have passed.
The Kyiv protests turned with a false bottom: the leaders of the opposition, which, in principle, does not listen, but to allow them slightly to direct; football hooligans and nationalists who had organized the unsuccessful assault of the administration and played a decisive role in the capture of Kiev city hall; peaceful "citizens", not jalousie first and bearable belonging to the second, qualifies this by adding, however, that without provocateurs has not done. They are called "aunts" name was one of the participants of the spring meetings in Kiev, which was accused of provocation and beating of journalists. And, unlike Moscow, this protest – hard, with his fists, very similar in its attributes to the Balkan events. Thanks primarily loyal to aggressive young people with flags of the UPA.
"So much rush to Europe?" – ask those revolutionaries that are very similar to representatives of the Moscow liberal opposition. "Yes, and here Europe. Don't want to be a vegetable, I want to have choice. But if you're wondering why today happened what happened – so it's after a night of Maidan, when the boys were beaten by "Berkut". We are taking revenge," says the it specialist Eugene, who had recently visited on a business trip in Los Angeles. His friends, "no hard feelings", I explained, than the Ukrainians differ from the "Muscovites": "You endure my power, and we, if anything, and we could be punished". From the stage on Maidan also appeal to Russia, constantly draw Parallels with "Putin's special forces".
On the street, however, the names of opposition leaders in conversation is almost inaudible, but to the idea of the all-Ukrainian strike to neglect them. Klitschko when he tried to speak, drowned out by whistling students. "What you see here, is the column "Against all", - explains to me one of the protesters. – We don't want to sit on the throne instead of Yanukovych Yatsenyuk. And he just wants a reaction, he lives on American money."
"It's all great, but what you want to achieve? A specific goal, a plan of action?" – baffle ordered himself another pint of neighbors on the table. "Nothing, - I answer, a little hesitated. Just let them know. For the future". On the question of how they coexist in a single protest from nationalists, to honestly admit: "you Know, there are many people who blood not ready, but want decisive action. And they are ready".
Local journalists with insider information from political circles, often called me the name of the Firtash – one of the largest Ukrainian businessmen, founder of RosUkrEnergo, involved in the transit of Russian gas on territory of Ukraine and further to Europe. Forbes puts Firtash in 14th place in the ranking of the richest Ukrainians, and my interlocutors – on the first place in the list of persons who can be beneficial to the events on Maidan.
But on the Khreshchatyk from questions of Firtash shrug – not conspiracy theories. Lead me in the tent with the words "the Will of Julia", where you pour the mulled wine and sing a hymn. Finally I again went to the city hall of Kiev – they are conducting an audit of sleeping bags. On the output side of the Maidan heard the voice of Svyatoslav Vakarchuk: "Arise, my sweet, Wake up". From parts of a giant artificial fir-trees, the erection of which the authorities explained the brutal crackdown on the opposition last night, building barricades. "Children's heads smashed, I saw so much blood. Damn Yanukovych and all his family, may all his children and grandchildren also suffer," laments an elderly woman in line for coffee. And if all this is not a revolution, I don't know, how looks revolution.
Alexey Butenko
Tags: assessment , security , threat