Last night, hundreds of thousands of protestors in Ukraine gathered for the third straight week as a massive group of the pro-Western demonstrators toppled a statue of former communist Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. The move was seen as a symbolic show of the crowd’s dissatisfaction with the direction of President Viktor Yanukovich’s government, which recently turned down a deal that would give the nation closer ties to the European Union. Instead, political-watchers believe Yanukovich is favoring a greater political and economic dependency on Russia. Protestors have blocked access to government offices and have given the president until tomorrow night to disband his government—if he doesn’t, they say they will lead a march to his home. In a response, a government spokesman said that the president was “ready for negotiations.” According to some reports, their was virtually no police presence at the demonstrations; this comes after the government had previously been criticized for using violent force in an attempt to quell the massive crowds a week ago …
