It seems to me that Lyonya Kosmos as many like to talk about the incumbent mayor is taking things a little too far... If you happen to be in Kyiv at this point you will see something like the following picture on Maydan, sent to me by another friend who has some good contacts on Maydan:
After spending a little time this morning after surfing the web for a while I came across the following on one of the forums on Ukrainska Pravda and found the picture there with a number of others.
Clearly such tactics by Chernovetsky reinforce my previous post, "Is Ukraine Changing?" Once again my answer is: Apparently not! Elected officials as well as their cronies, have little understanding of the rights of citizens, the image of tourist attractions, or what they have to do to make a city or country tourist friendly. Clearly, Chernovetsky doesn't understand that these vendor's are registered business people who pay taxes, are supporting Ukrainian culture, even though some of them sell kitchy things, are citizens of Ukraine and Kyiv who are not criminals but honest law abiding citizens. Like one comment towards my previous posting noted, "The thing is the more honest and decent you look; the bigger criminal you are..." Damn it the Mayor never even speaks Ukrainian - nor does he seem to care about honest law abiding citizens. I am certain that he didn't make his money by working hard.
