Head of the Ukrainian Barometer Sociological Service, political analyst Viktor Nebozhenko, has predicted new mass protests in Ukraine next spring.
"I think that protests on the Maidan [Independence Square in Kyiv], with the first spring sun, will resume again for any sort of reason – environmental, manmade, or economic," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
Nebozhenko said he was sure that the format of the Maidan as a means of communication with the authorities would be used in future. The political analyst also said that mass protests in Kyiv were impossible without the support and participation of Kyiv residents.
In his opinion, the protest by entrepreneurs against the Tax Code on Independence Square in Kyiv was unsuccessful and unfruitful. The way the authorities dispersed the protesters showed that they were able to respond to small political threats.
Director of the Center for Political and Conflict Studies Mykhailo Pohrebynsky, who also participated in the press conference, said that the protest by entrepreneurs had produced certain results.
"They [the businessmen] have not certainly won everything, but they forced the authorities, the president personally, to veto the Tax Code," the analyst said.
