podpolia

The political opposition in Ukraine has broken off talks with the government after parliament failed to pass a ‘no confidence’ vote. Yushchenko and his supporters have been pushing Yanukovich’s cabinet (Yanukovich is currently Prime Minister, but is running for President) to squash talk of sucession from eastern provinces. Meanwhile, this and other news has started a rush on banks in Donetsk (one of the eastern provinces threatening to break away).
In a broader view, Russia is making noises like they think the election in Ukraine is just the west trying to steal the election — despite Putin’s own interference in the election. There have even been widespread rumors of Russian special forces in Kiev, but as far as I know those are still unconfirmed.
Further information here from ‘Le Sabot Post-Moderne’ — one of the better bloggers out on the streets of Kiev.
Update: Forgot to put this in here. Romania seems to be doing almost the same thing as Ukraine — let’s hope that the run-off elections don’t happen like Ukraine’s did…

Pat Sajak on the murder of Theo van Gogh. The comment about Michael Moore is just great, but he also gets closer to what seems to be the reason for the silence in the ‘artistic’ community about it.