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[Tommy_Carcetti]

198. Yes. What happened with Maidan was not a coup, period.

Words matter, and their definitions matter.

Webster's definition of "Coup d'état" clearly reads:

: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coup%20d'%C3%A9tat

So let's break it down for you.

First of all, you can't identify the "small group" that executed the "coup". Clearly you can't mean the Maidan protesters themselves, because they are hardly a "small group."



Then you have to consider violence, or at least the threat of violence. And yes, the Maidan protests had become rather violent, albeit the vast majority of the casualties being the protesters themselves. But really you have to put into context the manner in which Yanukovych left Kiev. Because you claim he "fled for his life." And while I'm sure there was a concern in the back of his mind that he might end up Ceausescu'ed by the protesters, his state of mind his last few days in office was rather calm and orderly, even in the background of all the chaos downtown.

In other words, it was a calculated, voluntary, thought out decision on his part.

Why do I say that? I say that because it took him three days to pack up. Three days. And he started packing on February 19, 2014 before the sniper shooting incident on Maidan and before the EU brokered deal. And he didn't just pack up his essentials. He packed up literally truckloads of oil paintings, antique vases and other valuable frivolities. Why would someone supposedly fleeing for his life take the time to make sure his valuable luxuries were carefully bubble-wrapped? If you were running for your life, is that really what you'd be thinking about?

And then he got into his own personal fleet of helicopters and flew away in the early morning hours of February 22, 2014. All without a single gun being placed to his head forcing him to do so. You see, he had a decision. He could attempt to squelch the protesters, and perhaps he could have ultimately won (after all, Assad is still kicking it). Of course, he'd still be a man incredibly hated by his own people. On the other hand, he could choose to go to a place where he'd been offered sanctuary (in this case being Russia) and live an incredibly comfortable life as a private citizen. And that's what he chose to do.

Lest you think I'm just talking out of my ass here, there's three days worth of video of Yanukovych packing up and flying away.

(The first video is rather long, but Yanukovych himself is seen at 13:45 in the video)

Then you have to consider the "existing government" element of a coup, and you will be forced to admit that the Rada was not dissolved by anyone. The constitution was not dissolved was anyone. All that happened was that Yanukovych up and left. The Rada then removed him for dereliction of duty, and appointed an interim president until new elections could be held (which they were, three months later in May). I'm hard pressed to find any regime change labeled a "coup" that even remotely follows these lines of fact.

So no, if you follow the commonly accepted definition of the word "coup", this was certainly not a coup. If you have some sort of alternate definition from the Arendt dictionary that you'd like to share, by all means, do so.

You accuse me of having a foolish mindset towards Ukraine and go into what you believe will be the consequences of the IMF. To be honest, I have no idea what might happen down the road with the IMF. That's not my concern with your position. My concern with your position is that it's fundamentally dishonest as it relates to the facts, and therefore you are the one with little regard to the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian people were tired of the ongoing corruption from their president, and were incensed when he chose to ally the country with Russia, a country whose leader has denied the existence of the Ukrainian people as a nation. So they protested, Yanukovych attempted to crackdown on the protests but was unable to break them. So ultimately he made the decision to leave. It's as simple as that.

So, no. It was not a coup.