If you believe the reports, it was supposed to mark the launch of a new civic movement and — in the long run — potentially a new political party.
Or, judging by a few of the people in attendance, it might be a prime example of how “politics makes strange bedfellows,” others say.
The meeting in question gathered around 250 people from Ukrainian politics, state agencies, and civil society at Kyiv’s Zhovten cinema on Friday, Dec. 7 — and young reformers played a prominent role in the gathering.
Carried out in a darkened room, the event’s goal was to launch a new movement that would eventually turn into a political party ready to work with whoever wins Ukraine’s March 2019 presidential election, the Livyi Bereg news site reported. The burgeoning movement even reportedly has 500 supporters across Ukraine and a financing source.
But organizers of the meeting paint a different picture: yes, the event was aimed at gathering together political liberals and supporters of center-right politics to start some kind of political movement. But what comes next remains unclear.
“Please don’t read (this) as if it were a formal party meeting in line with Ukrainian legislation,” Maksym Nefyodov, Ukraine’s deputy economy minister and one of the organizers of the meeting, told the Kyiv Post.
“I do understand that, before elections, every conference or meeting is being misinterpreted,” he added. “I can definitely confirm that I’m not going to run for president, and I hope that none of the people (who were) present will.”
Anatomy of a meeting
The meeting was organized by an “initiative group” made up of five people: Nefyodov; Kyiv City Council member Sergiy Gusovsky; Oleksiy Honcharuk, director of the Better Regulation Delivery Office, a European Union-backed policy institute; Oksana Nechyporenko, director of the Global Office non-governmental organization; and Viktor Andrusiv, executive director of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, a reform-oriented think tank. All are regarded as political liberals and supporters of economic reforms and Ukraine’s greater integration into the West.
They organized what was intended to be a closed meeting to discuss political liberalism and setting a foundation for a political movement. However, interest was high and they struggled to keep the number of participants down, according to Nefyodov.
The event began with coffee, allowing participants — many who had met before — to greet one another and network. Then there was a short formal segment featuring speeches, followed by free discussion.
Each participant received a copy of the book “Why Nations Fail” by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson with a QR code attached. This code allowed the participants to register for a special Google forum and indicate their willingness to take part in a number of working groups dealing with everything from the content of the new political movement’s platform to fundraising.
“De facto, it was the inception, the very beginning of the beginning,” Gusovsky told the Kyiv Post. “I am certain that it is a first step that will be followed by many more.”
They also discussed preparing the first version of a document called “The Manifesto of the Ukrainian Liberal.” In the coming days, the meeting participants will receive the document. Later, it will be circulated for wider discussion by supporters, Gusovsky said.
According to him, the document focuses on economic liberalization, deregulation, and demonopolization. It also calls for an end to Ukraine’s moratorium on land sales.
“We say openly that the state is a bad businessman,” says Gusovsky, “and the state should not do business, because, in the end, it only becomes a source of income for those who stand behind the wheel of state enterprises.”
The document will also support personal freedom, equality, and a “dictatorship of the law.”
First reports on the Zhovten meeting claimed that the new movement was called “Lyudy Vazhlyvi” (“People Matter” in Ukrainian). However, both Gusovsky and Nefyodov say that is at best a slogan and hashtag derived from a series of videos released on social media over the past month. The videos feature people connected to the new movement talking about problems the country faces.
Strange bedfellows
When Livyi Bereg broke the news of the meeting, it reported that among the guests was Anton Herashchenko, a pugnacious parliamentarian from the People’s Front party, which has 82 seats in the Verkhovna Rada and is part of the ruling coalition.
An aide to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Herashchenko is known to support controversial initiatives like publishing a list of journalists who received accreditation from the Russia-backed separatists occupying Ukraine’s east. The list was viewed by rights activists as a call for reprisals against the press.
Many commentators online — and even participants in the meeting — questioned what relation he had to reformist ideas.
Political journalist Kristina Berdynskykh, who writes for the Novoye Vremya magazine, wrote on Facebook that she spoke with many attendees of the Zhovten meeting at a gathering of Aspen Institute Kyiv alumni on Dec. 8.
“Advice to our political technologists: If you want to collapse any new, promising project by your competitors, just do one thing: invite Anton Herashchenko,” she wrote. “Yesterday, many told me that the idea was good, they wanted to listen, but when they saw Anton Herashchenko, they decided not to get involved.”
People’s Front Party Lawmaker Anton Herashchenko poses for a photo. (Courtesy)
Both Nefyodov and Gusovsky declined to comment directly on Herashchenko’s presence at the meeting. However, Gusovsky stressed that, at the present moment, any participation by politicians is probably positive.
“Since, right now, we are talking about a civic movement, the more people who say they support the idea of liberalism, the better,” he says.
When the movement becomes a political party, there will be more clear rules about who can be a member, he added.
Different views?
But while organizers say that the meeting is the start of something big, a unified vision and plan appear to be lacking.
The movement does not currently have a name or even an official slogan. Gusovsky suggested that “People Matter” would be a good slogan. As a member of the Kyiv Team councilperson group in the capital’s city council, he said he would like to see the movement called the Ukrainian Team.
The movement also lacks significant financing at the moment, according to organizers. Gusovsky told the Kyiv Post that this is one of the issues that will be discussed in the future. Meanwhile, Nefyodov suggested that the movement currently has little need for financing when its only expenses are printed materials and, perhaps, a website domain name.
Gusovsky stressed that the civic group would eventually transform into a party. But Nefyodov is more equivocal.
“This is a movement right now, and the idea is to support the broad liberal agenda,” he says. “Making it a party or a (non-governmental organization) or a think tank is a tactical solution that some people might or might not take.
