Sergiy Tigipko, a Ukrainian parliamentarian and presidential candidate, said he believes the Party of Regions is partially responsible for the fact that the people of Donetsk and Luhansk do not feel safe now.
“I remained a member of the Party of Regions and its faction at the
most difficult time. However, the party has now been turned into a
branch of a specific financial and industrial group, a private
enterprise. All decisions are made by one person. There is repression
going on against people who do not agree with the party’s policies.
There is a real fight against dissent. Instead of renewal and
democratization, which voters expect from us, cleansing is going on,”
Tigipko said in his address to his comrades released by his press
service on Monday.
“People who tried to openly back my candidacy are now being forced to
leave the party. I have also been expelled from the Party of Regions.
All my comrades will be expelled from the party in the near future. It
is a betrayal of the interests of the party and the country. However,
this betrayal did not begin today. These people are responsible for what
the provisional government is doing in Ukraine,” Tigipko said.
Tigipko said he is convinced that Ukraine needs a powerful party
representing the interests of the people of its southeastern regions.
“The Right Sector and [Svoboda party] are now setting the tone in
Kyiv. The people of the southeastern regions are turning to radicalism
to save themselves. The Party of Regions is partially to blame for the
fact that the people of Donetsk and Luhansk don’t feel secure. The
party’s functionaries are putting separatist ideas up for the agenda,”
Tigipko said.
The politician said he does not want to be with the people who have
seized power in the country and are trying to secure their business
interests at the country’s expense.
“I have done all I could to conduct democratic changes in the party,
to make a system in which the party administration would hear you,
ordinary members of the party. However, the chance for a renewal of the
Party of Regions is lost,” he said.
