The EuroMaidan Revolution of 2014 was a watershed moment. What began as a small group of just a few dozen people advocating for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union in Kyiv’s Independence Square quickly turned into a mass demonstration after security forces violently disbanded the protesters. A few months later, the uprising unseated President Viktor Yanukovych, setting the conflict in eastern Ukraine in motion and kicking off the enduring standoff between Russia and the West. The demonstrations set a new precedent for protest movements, not just in Ukraine but across Eurasia: They illustrated the risks of a heavy-handed, authoritarian reaction to dissent and proved what a determined public could achieve through protest, with the help of social media. For governments throughout the region, these were troubling revelations. But as protests have become larger and more frequent across the region in the years since, leaders in certain former Soviet republics have heeded the lessons of the EuroMaidan and adapted their response to the growing unrest.
EuroMaidan Revolution
Stratfor: Heeding the lessons of the EuroMaidan Revolution
A EuroMaidan Revolution rally on Dec. 15, 2013, drew a crowd estimated at more than 200,000 people, taking up Khreshchatyk Street and the hillside overlooking Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The revolution came to an end on Feb. 22, 2014, when President Viktor Yanukovych fled power after four years of corrupt, authoritarian rule in which an estimated $40 billion was stolen from Ukrainians.
