January 2014

The oc­cu­pa­tion in Maidan con­tinues into January. A Rada or Council of the Maidan is elected and sig­ni­fic­antly avoids being dom­in­ated by the polit­ical op­pos­i­tion. Maidan is taking its place as an in­de­pendent so­cial and polit­ical force. In Maidan, there are few leaders iden­ti­fied with parties, al­though one has ties to the Batkivshchyna party, most are without party af­fil­i­ation; AutoMaidan is the group that has or­gan­ised food dis­tri­bu­tion and med­ical clinics – one of the leaders, Dmytro Bulatov, was ab­ducted and tor­tured. There is also a fac­tion of right-​wing Russian and Ukrainian speakers who do not sup­port any leader, do not trust the EU, or Russia.