The situation is quite a bit more complex than that. Also, remember that the opposition leaders represent the protesters on the streets. The protesters on the streets were not satisfied with the agreement from Friday. The opposition leaders then did exactly what good politicians should do: listened to their constituents and acted accordingly.
Moreover, they did the right thing. I will repeat it again: Yanukovhich is a criminal who should have been put into prison when he tried to rig a presidential election. Instead, he was allowed to run again.
Instead they should have just stepped down and let the crowd do any further talking. Crowd is a very interesting beast, and I would be very scared if the crowd would be making decisions on where the country should go.
I agree that Yanukovich is a criminal, but he is an elected president, elected by the people of the country and is the lawful authority. What is happening now is an upheaval.
Also, an entirely separate matter is, who is going take the power now. I seriously doubt that the new ruling class would be any better for the country than Yanukovich and his gang.
Your first paragraph does not gel well with the idea of democracy: rule of the people.
> I agree that Yanukovich is a criminal, but he is an elected president
In my book that's on oxymoron. Not only is he a criminal, but he committed crimes while in office, abusing the powers of his office. Moreover, due process was followed to remove him. He was not dragged out and shot like some other dictators usually are. This is not an upheaval, this is correction. Once again, Ukraine does not have a strong judicial branch to oversee constitutionality of what's happening. People taking to the streets and demanding change is a part of the process, not an exception.
> Also, an entirely separate matter is, who is going take the power now. I seriously doubt that the new ruling class would be any better for the country than Yanukovich and his gang.
I think it is hard to do worse than him. In either case, if they are worse, it will not take a long time for the crowds to come back. Also, the change on Friday was to restore the 2004 version of the constitution where the parliament has much more power and the president has less, so whoever becomes the president will not be in the same position as Yanukovych was just in.
> Your first paragraph does not gel well with the idea of democracy: rule of the people.
And who said that democracy, the rule of people, is ideal? It is the system that brought a convicted criminal that has been twice in jail to presidency. It was also the rule of people that allowed George W Bush to be a president of the US for 2 terms! I don't trust people, because they often choose idiots.
> In my book that's on oxymoron. Not only is he a criminal, but he committed crimes while in office, abusing the powers of his office.
I meant he was a criminal before becoming a president. And I will second, that the common crowd, the people still elected him.
> Also, the change on Friday was to restore the 2004 version of the constitution where the parliament has much more power and the president has less, so whoever becomes the president will not be in the same position as Yanukovych was just in.
Yanukovich stepped into presidency during the 2004 version constitution and it didn't prevent him from changin the rules of the game in his favour.
>> I agree that Yanukovich is a criminal, but he is an elected president, elected by the people of the country and is the lawful authority. What is happening now is an upheaval.
Wasn't he also lawfully voted out by his own people?
Moreover, they did the right thing. I will repeat it again: Yanukovhich is a criminal who should have been put into prison when he tried to rig a presidential election. Instead, he was allowed to run again.