Stefan Jajecznyk: The beginning of the end?
In the summer of 2012, roughly 6 months after the imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko, I found myself in discussions with one of Western Europe’s leading Ukrainian scholars. He was, at the time, predicting violence on Kyiv’s streets as a result of mass-fraud by incumbent President Yanukovych. It seems that this prediction of violence may come true quicker than anticipated.
Yanukovych may have played his hand too early; his abominable behaviour in Lithuania can only be described as shameless. Also, his ignorance of the press and the seeming contradiction between his actions and his rhetoric show a complete lack of respect for both the EU and his own people. For example, literally moments after Prime Minister Azarov announced Ukraine would be postponing its signing of the Association Agreement, President Yanukovych said that, “ … alternatives to euro-integration do not exist.” Similarly, his insistence on Russian presence in EU-Ukraine negotiations and his two-faced attitude to the EU has been, frankly, embarrassing.
Last night, the ‘Berkyt’ special operations wing of the police violently cleared the permanent, apolitical, pro-European demonstration on Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Journalists, students and citizens of all ages and sexes were indiscriminately beaten, kicked and attacked with tear gas. Waking up to these scenes invoked mixed feelings, though most prominent were a sense of true sadness and also anger. Sadness for the plight of the peaceful protestors; who were merely demonstrating their democratic (and constitutional) rights of freedom of expression and association; and anger at the level of violence used against these completely peaceful protestors.