Halya Coynash: Odesa minorities cry foul as new ‘people’s council’ report their persecution
Pro-Russian activist hold anti-Ukrainian and anti-US posters during their rally in front of regional state administration in Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa on March 6, 2014.
The Russian media are full of reports about "alarming" arrests and intimidation in Odesa of members of a newly-formed 'People's Council of Bessarabia' who were merely trying, so the reports say, to defend the rights of the area's national minorities. The reports certainly are alarming, but for different reasons. Representatives of national minorities in Odesa have condemned the formation of this body as a provocation, deny its claims about discrimination and persecution and challenge its members to identify themselves and explain why they're seeking a repetition of the scenario in eastern Ukraine.
