Scuffles broke out tonight on Dec. 1 between police and protesters as the latter attempted to dismantle Kyiv's main statue to Vladimir Lenin, the Soviet Union's founding leader, who is still revered by many but also loathed in Ukraine.
Protester’s failed, but not before scuffles broke out and a crowd gathered before riot police in a very tense situation.
Many Lenin statues still dot the Ukrainian landscape in villages, towns and cities, marking the Soviet Union’s still indelible mark on Ukraine’s embryonic period of independence as it struggles to make a choice of integrating closer with the West or veer toward its former ruler of Russia on whom it relies on for natural gas supplies as well as nearly 30 percent of annual export sales.
