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Excerpt from a dialogue with one of my friends from Kyiv; very insightful thoughts, in my opinion:

Even if the person is right, their position is completely unproductive. Because it's just constant complaining – no analysis, no predictions, no constructive suggestions.

In diplomacy, the key to success is properly formulated demands. A demand like "Yanukovych must resign" is poorly formulated. Firstly, because he won't leave on his own, and secondly, because it won't solve the problem.

For example, he talks about police abuse. So, that's where we should focus. Gather the most egregious examples of systemic abuse, publish them with names, dates, and documents, and then organize protests with slogans like: "The heads of police in these districts must be brought to justice."

And Yanukovych could very well satisfy this demand – it wouldn't be difficult for him to sacrifice a few perpetrators to preserve the system as a whole.

Then, a chain reaction will occur – a few will be arrested, and the rest will be more careful. Those who don't understand the first time can be dealt with in the same way, even without protests; a public appeal to Yanukovych would suffice: "A couple more need to be sent after them; maybe we can avoid protests this way, right?"

This is a constructive solution to the problem. The problem is that the US and the EU are not interested in this, so they won't prepare or pay for a protest to achieve it. We'll have to do it ourselves.