I saw this amazing story on the New York Times site when I was at work today, and haven't had a chance to read through the whole thing yet.
During the pro-Yushchenko election protests in Kiev last month, a lot of people were holding their breath, dreading the moment when the Ukrainian Spetznaz or the military would show up in force and start liquidating the protesters. It never happened and we all breathed a sigh of relief (and Yushchenko is now the President of the country).
According to this story though, the Ukrainian interior ministry was actually saddled up and ready to march on the demonstrators, but the country's intelligence services actively and effectively convinced the interior ministry to send their troops home. It's an amazing story, especially considering some pretty convincing rumors that a detachment of heavily armed Russian Spetznaz special ops guys were securing the parliament buildings and protecting Kuchma at the time. You'd think the intelligence services of Russia and Ukraine would be in bed with each other, but apparently not. Or maybe they are in bed but have just had some kind of weird lovers' spat.
I'd give a molar to have been there when it happened.
Posted by case at January 17, 2005 11:12 PM