For the second time in less than two months, Opposition Bloc lawmaker Mikhail Dobkin has found himself under siege by masked men.
A group of men wearing balaclavas stormed the Kharkiv City Council
building and gathered outside Dobkin’s home on Sept. 23, demanding to speak
with either Dobkin or Kharkiv Mayor Hennady Kernes.
Clashes broke out between some participants and police, and a tear gas
canister was thrown amidst the chaos, according to Ukrainian television channel
112.Ukraina. By mid-afternoon, police had cordoned off the area and the
protesters had dispersed, but many participants said it wasn’t over yet.
The official page of the Azov Battalion on social media site Vkontakte
had advertised the protest two days in advance, calling on participants to help
oust “accomplices to occupiers” from power – a reference to Dobkin’s
pro-Russian affiliations.
As a member of the Opposition
Bloc, which brings together political parties that did not support the 2014
Euromaidan Revolution and have a decidedly pro-Russian slant, Dobkin has come
under fire repeatedly by activists.
This time, public outraged stemmed
from a recent proposal he made to name a street in Kharkiv after killed Berkut
officers – the very same officers who many believe shot innocent protesters
during the EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv.
On Sept. 17, Dobkin spoke out against an initiative to name a street
after the Heavenly Hundred, those killed in the EuroMaidan Revolution that
ultimately moved Ukraine out of the Kremlin’s orbit.
Instead, he said, a street should be named in honor of the fallen Berkut
officers, news portal Glavcom.ua reported.
Azov’s statement defiantly called on
Dobkin to “go live in Moscow” if he wants to live on a street named in honor of
Berkut officers.
“There was a time when they stood on a podium with the Russian
tri-color. There was a time when they sponsored provocateurs and Berkut riot
police. There was a time when they killed Ukrainians!” the appeal read, noting
that “their time is now up.”
Local activist Andrei Ilgov, who took part in the protest, told the Kyiv
Post that many Kharkiv residents felt alienated by Dobkin’s proposal.
“He has always supported violence on the part of authorities and called
for the killing of protesters and those who disagreed with the regime of
(ousted President Viktor) Yanukovych,” Ilgov, head of the NGO Lustration
Chamber of Ukraine, said.
“Today our protest was peaceful, but people in Kharkiv have made up
their minds, and if he provokes us again, our actions may turn radical, and
Dobkin may be ejected from Kharkiv,” Ilgov said.
But Dobkin didn’t seem to see what all the fuss was about in comments to
local Kharkiv news site ATN on Sept. 23.
“What was wrong with my proposal? We buried three Berkut officers here.
What should we tell their children? That their fathers were bad men? I think
there should be such a street (named after them),” Dobkin was cited as saying.
He seemed to laugh off the incident, writing on Twitter that “peaceful
activists come to visit in the morning” next to a link to a YouTube video of
the protest.
Calls to Dobkin to elaborate on the protesters’ accusations against him
went unanswered on Sept. 23.
Activist Vladimir Chistilin said that while he hadn’t taken part in the
protest, as it had been organized by more “radical elements,” he was not
surprised by the uproar.
“Ahead of elections, Dobkin has been provoking people in Kharkiv by
making a lot of idiotic statements that irritate the more radical activists in
society here,” he said, adding that he believed it was more of a “political
game” than anything else, and that nothing would come of it.
“Dobkin just doesn’t want to be edged out of politics, so he makes these
loaded statements from time to time,” Chistilin said, adding that “(Dobkin)
isn’t really that big of a threat here, because all the real power is
concentrated in the hands of (Mayor) Kernes.”
At the city council meaning held in the morning, Kernes cancelled the
session, calling for a recess and saying that about 100 people in masks were
“beating on the gates and terrifying people” near Dobkin’s home.
Sergei Chernyak, the deputy head of
the Kharkiv city police, was quoted in Ukrainian media as saying an
investigation had already begun into the incident, but all protesters fled upon
the arrival of police.
Dobkin found himself at the center of a similar protest in Kharkiv on
Aug. 3, when activists smashed up his vehicle with baseball bats and he and his
aides were forced to barricade themselves in his office until police regained
control of the situation.
Kyiv Post staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at
[email protected]
