One of the first large shopping malls in Kyiv’s city center, the Globus mall situated under the main square Maidan Nezalezhnosti, was built in 2001. At the time, heated protests were taking place against then-President Leonid Kuchma. With dozens of people living in tents on the main square back then, it seemed like officials were shying away from outright breaking up the camp. Such a move could have triggered international condemnation. So, they came up with a more sophisticated plan.
Excavators and cranes were brought to the site to start digging up a huge hole. Protesters were forced to leave as the site became a construction area.
“It was done to gracefully get rid of the tents. First they dug up a hole, then came up with what to do with the hole and then they had a tender,” Harick Kogorodskyi, a businessman who built the mall, told Ukrainska Pravda.
Effective methods never grow old. They just sometimes need a new twist.
On the Nov. 22 seventh anniversary of the Orange Revolution, the approximately 2,000 people who came to Maidan to celebrate freedom and democracy also found an array of obstacles in their way.
First of all, the mass gatherings were banned by the court.
Despite this, the elite Berkut riot police took tender care of pro-government protestors, just like they did outside the Pechersk court where ex-Prime Minsiter Yulia Tymoshenko was prosecuted, found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. These big armed men made sure President Viktor Yanukovych’s supporters had the second best spot on Maidan, as other big men were busy with the first best spot – erecting the Christmas tree a full month and a half ahead of New Year’s Eve.
One cannot help but wonder if Berkut guards will take the same care with Chornobyl cleanup veterans who are on hunger strike in Donetsk, demanding their pensions. The local court also banned them from holding protests, citing a “threat of a terrorist attack in the region.”
Just like weeks ago outside the Pechersk court, pro-government activists with their controversial leader Oleg Kalashnikov were blaring their music and recorded speeches drowning the protesters. Special police were not so supportive of the opposition’s sound situation. Instead, they blocked the car carrying equipment from entering Shevchenko Park where protesters had their rally on Aug. 24.
Despite all of the above, protesters had an improvised stage on the stairs of the Globus mall opposite the main post office, trying to hear what their speakers yelled into loudspeakers. Suddenly a gust of wind blew plastic bags, garbage, sand and dirt up in the air. Candles that people on stage were holding went down. The underground Globus shopping mall appeared to have switched its ventilation system into high gear, keeping it on the length of the protest. The only good news for those on stage was that the sand and dirt were soon blown away and all they had to cope with was hot air.
Certainly it might have been a coincidence. But for most protesters on Maidan, it definitely tracked with what Ukrainian authorities were doing lately – reviving old authoritarian tricks.
One can only wonder how the Globus shopping mall will be used again in the future to interfere with opposition protests.
Will it be shut down for “reconstruction” just as the square is filled with angry people with banners and tents? Will special coffee machines be installed that spit into protesters’ coffee after preparing it?
As the paranoia of authorities and their disrespect for their own people deepen, one can only wonder what other coincidences might happen in exactly the right time and place.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected].
