The opposition parties, having lost the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election shortly before the scandal, considered the campaign as a natural reason for unification and reinforcement. Soon, the initiative grew into a mass campaign widely supported by students and opposition activists. The protesters sought Kuchma's stepping down and proper investigations of the disappearance of journalist Georgiy Gongadze. The first and barely noticed action of the campaign took place on 15 December 2000 on Maydan Nezalezhnosti ( Independence Square), the main plaza of Kiev ( Kyiv), the Ukrainian [[Capital capital.
The protests did not disappear untraced and resulted in consolidation of the democratic opposition which led to the Orange Revolution. "Ukraine without Kuchma" was organized by the political opposition, influenced by the infamous Cassette Scandal, presidential elections of 1999, and aimed mainly to demand the resignation of the newly elected President Leonid Kuchma. Seeking the criminal responsibility for those events was renewed with the election of Viktor Yanukovych as the President of Ukraine. Unlike the Orange Revolution the Ukraine without Kuchma was effectively extinguished by the government enforcement units followed by numerous arrests of the opposition and the Ukrainian-speaking participants.
Ukraine without Kuchma (Ukrainian language: Україна без Кучми Ukrayina bez Kuchmy) is the name for the campaign that saw a mass protest campaign preceding the 2000-2001 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Mass protest in Khreschatyk, 6 February 2001
0 kommentar(er)
