Former members of Ukraine’s special forces, known as Berkut, were sighted working as OMON riot police at yesterday’s anti-corruption protests in Russia, reported Ukrainian news outlet LB.ua.
The Moscow Times: EuroMaidan special forces reappear at Moscow protests
Berkut officers take aim at EuroMaidan protesters with shotguns near the entrance to the Mothercare store in the Globus shopping mall on the corner of Maidan Nezalezhnosti on Feb. 18, 2014. While the Berkut mainly used less lethal buckshot ammunition, it emerged on Jan. 23, 2014 that they had also improvised more dangerous weapons by taping nails and other metal objects to stun grenades, to produce shrapnel. At least two protesters were also shot dead on Jan. 22, 2014, allegedly with the use of live ammunition. Riot police were spotted near Maidan Nezalezhnosti carrying AK-47 assault rifles on Feb. 18, 2014, although then Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko only gave the official order to issue live ammunition to police on Feb. 20, 2014.
