Kyiv: 2004 Redux?

Having visited Kyiv eight months ago, enjoyed photographing some of the Orthodox churches and walked through Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, (#EuroMaidan) the central square that was home to the 2004 Orange Revolution, I’m drawn to coverage of the ongoing demonstrations. An acquaintance in Kyiv tells me he does not think this will amount to a new revolution, that most “people who are standing now on the streets are don’t know why they are there,” and that the government is corrupt but not stupid. He thinks, as Julia Ioffe writes in another context, that it’s just not possible to ignore the looming Russian presence in the Ukrainian economy. He also sends along the best photo coverage of the protests I’ve seen.

(Kiev is the Russian spelling. Ukraine adopted the Ukrainian spelling, Kyiv, at independence.)