You're reading: Ukrainian officials apologize for crackdown on demonstrators

Ukrainian authorities on Feb. 27 took conciliatory steps towards demonstrators protesting the central bank's policy after the police cracked down on their camp the previous day.

The police crackdown on the protest camp in front of the National Bank of Ukraine in Kyiv, called “Financial Maidan,” has triggered resentment in society. But critics have accused the protests of being orchestrated by the Kremlin or former President Viktor Yanukovych’s allies to destabilize the political situation.

Police brutality has been a highly sensitive issue in Ukraine ever since the beating of protesters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti by riot police on Nov. 30, 2013 spurred a revolution that overthrew Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014, after the murders of more than 100 demonstrators shot by snipers from behind police lines. Since then, the police have tried to avoid confrontation with demonstrators.

Despite the crackdown, about 100 protesters assembled again in front of the central bank on Feb. 27. The demonstrators, who have camped out there since Feb. 24, demand the dismissal of its head Valeria Gontareva and measures to alleviate the plight of borrowers who took out loans denominated in foreign currency as the hryvnia’s exchange rate is rapidly falling. These include a law enabling them to repay loans at the exchange rate valid at the time when they took them out.

Though the demonstrators did not have any tents on Feb. 27, they brought chairs to the protest site and installed a table for the distribution of food and drinks. They also brought a garbage container covered with a gold-colored paint apparently intended for Gontareva and dummies representing “people killed by loans.”

Some of the posters read “Gontareva, is the hryvnia still floating or has it sunk already?” and “VIP lustration for VIP officials.”

Financial Maidan near the National Bank of Ukraine Feb.27 in Kyiv.

Dummies of dead debtors at the protest camp in front of the central bank on Feb. 27.

Anton Gerashchenko, a lawmaker representing the People’s Front party and a former advisor to the interior minister, visited the protest camp on Feb. 27, condemning the police’s actions and promising to make sure that the personal belongings seized from protesters by police will be returned to them.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov also apologized for the police’s actions in a Facebook post late on Feb. 26. “I apologize to the whole country for the police’s unprofessional conduct in that situation and the ugly scene near the National Bank of Ukraine’s building,” he said.

He added that the ministry would investigate the incident and publish the results of the investigation within 48 hours. A criminal case into the issue was also opened.

Avakov also fired the head of Kyiv’s Pechersky police district and suspended the district head’s deputy in charge of public security from work. He promised that the authorities would address the plight of foreign-currency debtors.

However, not all government representatives took a conciliatory approach. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, head of the Security Service, claimed on Feb. 27 that Russia’s intelligence agencies were behind the protests.

Financial Maidan near the National Bank of Ukraine Feb.27 in Kyiv. gontareva

A portrait of Valeria Gontareva, the central bank’s head, at the protest camp on Feb. 27.

Vitaly Belko, a member of the Financial Maidan’s organizing committee, dismissed the allegations that the Kremlin or Yanukovych’s associates were involved.

He told the Kyiv Post that demonstrators had decided to set up a tent on Feb. 26 to protect themselves from rain. Then police officers told them that the tent violated Ukrainian law, he added.

Belko said that National Guardsmen beat up some of the demonstrators, injuring them. “Then camouflaged agent provocateurs came and tried to provoke a scuffle,” he said, adding that the police did nothing about it. “One of the agent provocateurs broke a protester’s jaw.”

The Interior Ministry’s press office, however, denied that its employees had used force against demonstrators.

Natalya Reznikova, who coordinates Financial Maidan protests in Kharkiv, told the Kyiv Post that she had taken out a $97,000 mortgage loan and repaid two thirds of it. However, she could not repay the whole amount due to the hryvnia’s free-fall, and the bank is seeking to seize her apartment. “Courts tend to side with banks,” she said.

In December the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill setting a moratorium on the seizure of foreign-currency debtors’ property. Critics of the law argued that it would deal a death blow to foreign-currency lending in Ukraine and disrupt the economy, and in January President Petro Poroshenko vetoed it.

Financial Maidan near the National Bank of Ukraine Feb.27 in Kyiv.

Food being distributed to demonstrators at the protest camp near the central bank on Feb. 27.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].