22:34 28/02/2014
MOSCOW, February 28 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Foreign Ministry (click here) said Friday it has ordered its consulate in Crimea to speed up the issuance of passports and citizenship to members of Ukraine’s elite Berkut riot police.
“The Russian consulate in Simferopol has been instructed to take all necessary measures to start issuing Russian passports to officers of the Berkut unit,” the ministry said in its Facebook blog.
The new authorities in Kiev have disbanded the Berkut following last week’s deadly clashes between riot police and anti-government protestors that left 88 people dead and injured hundreds before Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital....
...Members of the disbanded Berkut received a hero’s welcome from some residents when they arrived in Crimea’s capital Simferopol at the weekend. Supporters claimed that they had been defending the country against alleged extremists in the opposition movement.
These riot police were wrong. They fired indiscriminately into a crowd of primarily unarmed demonstrators. They were slaughtered for demonstrating. If they had reasons for their actions they can declare themselves innocent and prove the charges are wrong.
Interior Ministry members are on fire, caused by molotov cocktails
hurled by anti-government protesters, as they stand guard during clashes
in Kiev February 18, 2014. (Reuters / Andrew Kravchenko) I know there were dead officers and even molotov cocktails thrown in retaliation, but, the demonstrators were all unarmed. They had no guns. Why would riot police open fire on unarmed people? They escalated things. They were only taking orders, I am sure. Those men were not robots without minds to know those people were unarmed.
These complaints about police and their brutality are common in the USA. We do complain about police when they are wrong in their actions. This level of violence was wrong. The demonstrators were not only unarmed, but, had no armor to protect them.
The actions of these men completely shocked Europe. No one ever expected them to kill people. Never.
