The day itself: history has made its first move, and the next one is yours.
Briefing
16 January 2014. Two months ago Yanukovych refused to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, and Kyiv went out onto the Maidan. After the Berkut riot police beat students the protest became a mass movement: tents, barricades, the occupied city hall and Trade Unions building, a self-defence force. Moscow has lent Kyiv $15 billion and cut the gas price. Today the Party of Regions and the Communists raised their hands for laws that ban almost any protest. Klitschko, Yatsenyuk and Tyahnybok call people to the Maidan, the radicals to Hrushevskoho Street. The security forces await orders, the oligarchs the outcome. Play Yanukovych and decide whether to hold power or give way; play Russia, the West or the neighbours and decide whose side to take.
Real history stays a strong tendency: what happened later is planned for its date – until your actions change the world.
You govern: the orders are the state's.
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The world on 16 January 2014
On 16 January 2014 Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passes by a show of hands and without a proper count a package of laws restricting protest, the press and civil society, which the opposition at once calls the "dictatorship laws". President Viktor Yanukovych signs them the next day. For eight weeks protesters have held Kyiv's Independence Square, the Maidan, since he refused in November to sign an association agreement with the European Union.
The protests began peacefully and grew after riot police beat students on the Maidan at the end of November. In December Russia offered Ukraine a loan of fifteen billion dollars and cheaper gas, and the government has taken the first part. The opposition leaders Vitali Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleh Tyahnybok speak for the square, but radical groups are growing stronger, and the new laws threaten everyone on it with prison.
The European Union and the United States urge the government to talk rather than use force; Moscow calls the protests a Western-backed attempt at a coup. Ukraine's economy is close to default. Whether the square is cleared, whether the government gives way and whether the crisis stays within Ukraine's borders is still open.