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Police to tighten security in downtown Kiev during protests

A protest by defrauded depositors is scheduled for November 15

KIEV, November 14. /TASS/. Kiev police chief Andrei Krishchenko has announced that due to a heightened terrorist threat, the city’s main thoroughfare, Khreshchatyk, will be closed off on November 15. Adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister Zoran Shkiryak earlier said that on November 14 the police and the National Guard would be put on high alert.

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Ukrainian protesters in center of Kiev call for "people’s assembly"

A protest by defrauded depositors is scheduled for November 15. According to the organizers, people will demand back their lost deposits because of some banks becoming insolvent, they will also call for the dismissal of the heads of the National Bank and the Deposits Guaranteeing Fund for individual accounts,as well as a temporary investigation commission to be established to look into their activities. The depositors’ protest may last several days thus spilling over into trade union demonstrations. On November 17, trade unions plan to bring some 50,000 people to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) building to demand that the government raise salaries and cut utility rates.

Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party, Oleg Lyashko’s Radical party, Vadim Rabinovich and Yevgeni Murayev’s For Life party as well as some other political forces may join the protests against the rising utility rates.

According to Ukrainian expert Ruslan Bortnik, "this is just a beginning." "This is a test protest to assess the authorities’ response. The protests may peak in February and March 2017," the expert stated.

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