So now we know that, in a well-lit and packed restaurant in Luhansk, a man can beat a woman for 20 minutes – punch her, yank her out of a booth by her arm and drag her along the floor by her hair – and nobody will do anything. Most men and women in the restaurant will just sit there, smoking and drinking.
These 14 minutes of video that came out last week revealed much that is wrong in Ukraine.
In the July 4 incident, Roman Landik – a 37-year-old Luhansk city council member and recently married son of a pro-presidential Party of Regions parliamentarian – is seen pummeling 20-year-old Maria Korshunova.
She remains hospitalized.
The incident highlights indifference, violent sexism and societal rot.
An alert restaurant manager, security guard or waitress could have stopped this beating.
The incident highlights indifference, violent sexism and societal rot.
There was plenty of time for police to arrive if someone had called. But the video shows no law enforcement on the scene.
Did no one act because they knew Landik’s father is close to President Viktor Yanukovych?
Born the same year that Ukraine declared its independence, the victim grew up in a nation filled with upheaval and poverty.
Many had jobless, absent or alcoholic fathers.
Some families were held together by an overworked and underpaid mother.
Many girls were raised to think that their beauty and sexuality are their main assets. This all may or may not apply to the victim.
Born the same year that Ukraine declared its independence, the victim grew up in a nation filled with upheaval and poverty.
In the decade-long era of ex-President Leonid Kuchma, his family and friends became super rich as many Ukrainians got mired in poverty and ignorance, drifting hopelessly in a cloud of cheap alcohol, cheap cigarettes and menial jobs.
Others became overachievers. Millions just fled abroad.
This is the result of “Kuchma-ism,” a system in which Soviet riches were doled out to favored insiders while everyone else toiled for their daily bread.
Yanukovych is accentuating this patronage system.
It is no secret that many of Ukraine’s wealthy display the crudeness and bad character that often comes with riches that are not earned honestly.
Embarrassed authorities issued an arrest warrant for Landik, but he had enough time and access to flee to neighboring Russia.
Under pressure, the Party of Regions expelled him. It’s admirable, but doubtful that such swift action would have happened if the authorities had not been confronted with the videotape.
Many worse crimes go unrecorded every day.
They need to be prosecuted. And everyone living in this nation, citizens and guests alike should examine the societal sicknesses that this tragedy highlights and work together to cure them.
