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The Maidan three months after the revolution (Photo: Marco Fieber)

Feature

Uneasy calm in Kiev on eve of Sunday elections

The Maidan three months after the revolution (Photo: Marco Fieber)

Andrei, 44, walks up and down Khershchatyk Street in Kiev city centre, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, with a pistol in a holster on his belt.

The former businessman, from Zaporizhia, in south-east Ukraine, is a mid-level commander in Self-Defence, a volunteer brigade formed during the revolution, who was given a special ID badge and a licence to carry firearms by Ukraine’s new authorities.

Asked by EUobserver on Saturday (24 May) if there is a risk of violence in Kiev during...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

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