After getting the cold shoulder from Ukraine’s government by ditching the European Union’s association agreement on Nov. 21, the angry West started public unrest in Ukraine.
A few handfuls of radicals and fascists from western Ukraine, raised on the stories of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and their leader Stepan Bandera (all collaborators of Nazi Germany during World War II) started violent assaults against the police, takeovers of government buildings and the like.
These people are very well paid for their effort, and are well equipped. The size of the U.S. diplomatic cargo grew by four times since the start of the riots – and this is a sign that the Americans are shipping in everything to help protesters.
The U.S. is interested in destabilizing Ukraine, while the Europeans do not want instability on their eastern border, hence their silence and lack of sanctions and other actions in the wake of the (completely legal) government crackdown on protesters.
The Americans dole out cash to certain activists (names follow), $50,000 at a time just for fuel, right on the U.S. Embassy premises. Some protesters are getting upwards of $500 per day for taking part in the protests, and the pay grows the more Molotov cocktails they throw at the defenseless police who have the law on their side to use weapons in such cases, but instead they act with great restraint.
I did not make any of this up.
All of these, and many more arguments, I have heard over the past week from various Party of Regions members, of all ages and both genders, as I made an effort to hear their story. They stand by this alternative history of EuroMaidan.
“Some of my acquaintances have bought apartments with the money they earned since the start of the protesters. Expensive cars also,” one Party of Regions member tells me in a private conversation.
In the light of this alternative history of EuroMaidan, the Party of Regions grumble that the government is doing so little to crack down on the protesters. “I think we need a cleanup,” says Oleh Tsariov, one of the key speakers in the Party of Regions, and one of its hardliners. He was one of two faction members who did not vote on Jan. 28 to repeal the autocratic laws passed on Jan. 16 that led to massive clashes between the police and the protesters.
Tsariov says that the government should use whatever it takes to clean up the streets. “Berkut (special riot police), units of self-defense,titushki (hired thugs) – anything goes. I don’t like what’s going on in the country now, and even less will I like it when those who are striving to get the power, will get there – such as (Oleh) Tiahnybok,” Tsariov said.
Many members of the Party of Regions wholeheartedly endorse the use of titushki, the paid thugs, by the government. These gangs of sporty youths, often carrying iron rods and the like, work side by side with the police in many parts of Ukraine to clear off the streets, using all means available, including brutal force, against women and children, as was the case in Zaporizhya on Jan. 26, when children aged 13-15 were caught, beaten and deprived of sleep and any rights.
Some of those people were simply snatched from the streets because they were close to the site of protests. They are now going to courts to hear sentences for participating in mass riots, and in some cases parents only get to see in court their children who had been missing for more than a day, according to the protesters’ information.
Mykhailo Chechetov, another prominent speaker in the Party of Regions says that titushki, who have played a key role in crackdowns across Ukraine, are the community that stands up to mercenaries from western Ukraine who want to destabilize the whole country.
“It’s only natural that the community of cities stands up to those armed bandits who are bused in to crush the aliens who come armed and ready to destroy, vandalize and take over government buildings,” he says.
Chechetov said it was no accident that those protester were coming in from different parts of the country, so that they feel no emotional or otherwise restraint to crush properties and so on.
The Party of Regions believe that their story is under-reported by the media, including the mainstream media, and hate journalists who they believe have taken the protesters’ side. This view is shared by the Berkut, hence their targeted attacks that have left more than 40 journalists injured in the last phase of clashes alone. They also believe that rioters mask themselves as journalists to get closer to the police and hit harder.
Any argument that you give the government supporters, gets a counter-argument. When you say people get killed, kidnapped and tortured by the police, you hear that they are radicals and deserve what they get. That they violate the law and the treatment they would get in the west would be even harsher.
When you say the government has lost touch with people and loots, attacks and lies, they say you have a chance to change it at the next election, and instead your radical freaks are rocking the boat.
This alternative story is shared by many people across the country, and here is the proof. At the end of December, after several government-ordered crackdowns against the protesters, President Viktor Yanukovych would still get 30 percent of the vote in a presidential election, according to a poll conducted by Democratic Initiatives Foundation and Razumkov Centre, two reputable think tanks.
This is an amazing result, that represents about 10 million people. And the number is truly stunning when you read that that 71 percent of those polled said the situation in the country has gotten worse in the course of last year. This means many of those who are unhappy with the government, still endorse it.
Vitali Klitschko, the former boxer and leader of the opposition Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, would get the second highest number of votes, 22 percent. The margin of error in this representative nationwide poll of 2,010 was 2.3 percent.
The people who support the government policy carry inherently different values than those who are braving it out onto Maidan in minus 20. As I was giving a guided tour of EuroMaidan to a visiting foreigner recently, he commented that every tent on Khreshchatyk Street has a different slogans, and every protester shouts out a different demand.
I told him that the common denominator of them all is that they want to make sure that the country allows all this diversity, and they coexist in a peaceful manner regulated by an efficient, clear and applicable set of rules.
The other side, including the Party of Regions and its electorate, on the contrary, stand for a rigid hierarchy, want to fit into that system and don’t mind the casualties that come from a system like that. They have a different understanding of rules and justice, also.
One Party of Regions member told me, for example, that many in their ranks got trampled on, insulted and slandered in the past few years by journalists and activists. So, the Jan. 16 laws that made slander a criminal offense punishable by up to seven years in prison, as well as a ban of non-government sector activities, was an adequate and justified response.
Their argument against repealing the laws was the fact that it does not work anyway because the government has no strength (at least for now) to enforce it. They dismissively laugh at the fact that the law passed without a proper procedure, by a show of hands, in half-empty hall, but was still made law. They interpret that as their victory and don’t think much about legal procedures or the fact limitation of rights would concern them as well. “We don’t do anything illegal,” is their main argument.
This is why the kangaroo courts against political prisoners like ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and protesters seem like justice to them: those people are committed crimes and are justly punished. The crimes may be different from what they go to prison for, but it’s justice nevertheless.
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected].
