UKRAINE IS NOT ENTIRELY A BROTHEL?

Ukraine's secret service has threatened them with violence: With a mix of political protest and eye-catching eroticism, the women's rights group Femen has inspired fear in Ukrainian authorities with its fight against prostitution and sex tourism.

KIEV, Ukraine - Donetsk is the regional capital of eastern Ukraine.The presents of Coal mines and heavy industry have made some of the region's oligarchs very wealthy, but the majority of the population lives in poverty.
Many women here dream of a better life in Kiev or the West, and many fall prey to false promises and end up as prostitutes in brothels.

• However, some travel agencies offer "Romantic Tours," in German and English, of eastern Ukraine. In Kiev, meanwhile, pimps will call the hotel rooms of foreign guests and offer to sell them "a good time with a girl." According to a survey, 70 percent of students in the capital have been approached at least one time by a foreigner offering them money for sex.
• Inna gets dolled up to greet Greg, the bachelor from New Zealand. The blonde slips into her crocodile-skin high heels and shiny leather pants, and places a crown of flowers in her hair. Waiting in the arrival hall at Donetsk airport, she has a sign in hand with "Greg, come here" scrawled across it. But it's unlikely Greg would be able to overlook her: Her breasts are bare.
• Inna Shevchenko, 20, a student from Kiev, is a "Topless Fighter," as activists with the women's rights group Femen call themselves. For two years, the organization has been fighting against sex tourism and prostitution in Ukraine, a country that even Google automatically associates with "dating agencies" and "women." The advertisements to the right of a Google search for "Ukraine" are for "Single Ukrainian Ladies," "Women From Ukraine," or "Partner Search Ukraine." Although the group has only a few dozen activists like Inna and around 300 supporters, the topless protests have established a global reputation for Femen.
• One year ago, half-naked activists warning against the "Rape of Democracy" stormed the polling station where presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich was casting his vote. After winning, Yanukovich curbed freedom of speech and the press, and even imprisoned members of his opposition.

Since Yanukovich came to office, the SBU, Ukraine's top secret service, has attempted to intimidate the Femen activists. They claim that SBU officials even threatened to "break the legs" of the group's leader if she didn't cease her attacks on the government.
"The state fears Femen because they are increasingly targeting Yanukovich's government," said Taras Chornovil, an independent member of the Ukrainian national parliament.

Source: SPIEGEL ONLINE ..read more..