Ukrainian netizens drafted an open letter to the Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė [1], asking her to postpone her visit to Ukraine, currently scheduled for Nov. 22, the seventh anniversary of the 2004 protests known as the Orange Revolution [2], and explaining that a court's decision to ban citizens from gathering for commemorative events on Kyiv's Independence Square that day was partly due to Ms. Grybauskaitė's visit. The letter is posted [3] [ru] on the Facebook Wall of Denis Oleinikov, a Ukrainian businessman now based in Croatia (more on his case here [4] and here [5]) – as of now, the post has 376 ‘likes,’ 219 comments, and 79 ‘shares'; the letter has also been re-posted [6] [ru] on iPetitions (30 signatures so far); the appeal in English and Lithuanian is here [7].
Ukraine: Netizens Appeal to Lithuanian President to Postpone Her Visit
· Written by Veronica Khokhlova
Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, Ukraine, Citizen Media, Digital Activism, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Human Rights, International Relations, Law, Politics, Protest