22 Feb 2014

Yanukovych flees, only to ap­pear on TV claiming he was ousted by a coup d’etat. Russia sup­ports this line, and re­gional lead­er­ship in Kharkiv and Crimea sup­port the Russian nar­rative and argue that events in Kyiv have over­turned a demo­crat­ic­ally elected government.

Parliament, now ef­fect­ively con­trolled by the op­pos­i­tion forces, claims the right to rule in the “cur­rent ex­traordinary cir­cum­stances”. Olexander Turchynov is elected speaker and sub­sequently in­terim President. The new interim government will be comprised of Maidan organisers, as well as Opposition leaders. Parliament com­mences to pass laws rolling back most of the re­pressive meas­ures im­ple­mented under Yanukovych. It or­ders the re­lease from jail of Yulia Tymoshenko. May 25 is set for fresh presidential elections.