Last week the District Court of Kyiv banned the Chornobyl activists’ rallies of protest in a lawsuit initiated by the Kyiv City Administration. A very timely ruling it was, considering that downtown Kyiv was to host a nationwide strike on December 1, involving the opposition, Chornobyl and Afghan war veterans, along with a number of nonprofit organizations, with their activists making public complaints addressing those “upstairs.” In fact the organizing committee had said such rallies could last for a week. Will this court ruling lower the social tensions? Hardly likely and even local Party-of-Regions-appointed authorities realize as much, but then VR’s MP Volodymyr MAKEIENKO came up with an unexpected political scenario that boils down to making the masses realize that the central budget can’t afford to meet all their needs. Sounds bad but true.
“We have our [central] budget, just as we have a court ruling concerning the Chornobyl [veterans and their rallies]. This ruling has to be carried out, although I think restructuring would be a good option — as in the case of a bank customer failing to pay the loan interest on time and being allowed to pay later. I think the 2012 budget bill could provide for partial Chornobyl damage payments. Remember what happened to the Soviet Savings Bank? This is largely the same problem.
“I also remember my majority electoral district in Kyiv oblast when I studied the lists of Chornobyl victims and found the names of apparatchiks, people who had spent barely an hour in the Exclusion Zone and who claimed the status with the attendant benefits. They were impostors, another problem I had to solve.”
You say it’s time all flirting with the electorate should stop. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has resolved to raise Chornobyl victims’ pensions at the expense of the other privileged categories.
“I don’t think this pension increase will affect any other privileged categories.”
Let me quote: “Money to be channeled into higher allowances for the Chornobyl victims will be transferred from other [budget] programs, including the social ones.”
“That’s right, I mean all those other programs.”
Other programs? Would you please explain?
“This means amending the current budget or adopting the 2012 budget program. Our fiscal year is drawing to a close and I can assure you that all of its programs have been completed.”
Those who took part in the protest rallies demanded [higher] pensions and that ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko be released from jail.
“You’ve just hit the nail on the head. What was there to keep all those Chornobyl veterans silent during the previous years? Who brought the issue ‘upstairs’? Are politics involved? Looking through the lists of Chornobyl veterans’ rightful complaints, I come across BYuT party banners now and then, and then I have questions that have to be answered. I know that Ukraine will have to sustain another parliamentary campaign next year, so there is a definite political aspect to be considered. Just look at those who take part in the protest rallies.”
What about your home turf, Donetsk oblast that doesn’t have a trace of opposition? What made people rise in arms (using pitchforks)? Don’t you think this should set the red lights flashing in official Kyiv?
“You and I are old-school politicians. We’re young and old in that sense (laughing). If anything like that happened in Ivano-Frankivsk or Lviv, the reverberations would be different, but it happened in Do-netsk, the heart of the Party of Regions. This would make a good movie script, wouldn’t it? I saw that old man with a beard and pitchfork and/or spade. His image was played by practically every channel. What I mean is that things happen somewhere because someone plans them and pays for them to happen. Yes, bad things happened in Donetsk, so what? Does this mean that no such things have happened or will happen elsewhere in Ukraine? Personally I regard this as yet another manifestation of democracy.”
Are you saying that everything that has happened is to be attributed to the opposition’s treacherous tactic, and that the masses feel content with what they have?
“There is no factual evidence, but my personal experience says everything must have been organized. I wasn’t in Donetsk [that day], but I was in front of the Cabinet building in Kyiv. I watched as a 82-year-old man was led to the cameras. His interview was broadcast by all channels. I saw who led him to the cameras, just as I can identify people who make decisions and arrangements. Watch Borys Novozhylov running around with his no-one-but-us programs. What can this one have in common with the Chornobyl and Afghan veterans? Nothing. He used to preside over one of Kyiv district Komsomol committees, subsequently to be appointed as ‘director’ of the Artek prestigious youth resort in the Crimea, later to be accused of pedophile practices. Can there be any connection between this character and Chornobyl and Afghan veterans? Obviously not.”
Rather than study his biography, I would like to focus on those in po-wer. Previously, they were weak and disunited, yet even then all those protest rallies looked like another marketplace show. They are much stronger today and the rallies look much more serious, with pension fund premises being assaulted by an enraged crowd bursting through the militia cordons. And then that death in Donetsk, probably an accident or maybe a deliberate act. Can’t you see any parallels?
“Any rally takes organizing; each such action has a purpose. Some of the opposition, like Korolevska, use them to add to their political ratings.”
Don’t you think that the higher the pressure, the more aggressive response? We have heard about Tymoshenko freezing in her prison cell, having to wear a coat and being physically assaulted by two hefty jerks. Then people gathered in front of the Lukianivka penitentiary. There were many of them, none apparently having been paid for being there. They came because they cared.
“You should also mention 510,000 BYuT members, among them members of parliament. Half a million! How many picketed the penitentiary? Several thousand.
“On the other hand, why should you worry about us politicians? We know what we’re doing and are aware of the risks involved. We’re also ambitious: there are long waiting lists of politicians eager to head [political] parties in parliament. The competition is severe. All have problems of some or other kind. Have you seen any politician willing to step down? It’s true that now and then some or other politician gets carried away; some simply don’t realize it’s time to call it quits or slow down at least. Then there is a situation like the one you have mentioned, then one half of our society starts lamenting. They should concern themselves over the children at the orphanages, or about our elderly people with their minimal pays. Yes, I understand your questions concerning the Chornobyl and Afghan veterans. Also, you, media people, have written about us politicians, about the way we live, the cars we have, the kind of food we prefer. And I mean all politicians. Like I said, we know what we’re doing and risks involved. A politician mat show a spectacular career or a spectacular downfall.”
You know what actually enrages the general public? Injustice. People can see all those “majority” nominees and their limos; they see some of these politicians killing fellow humans and getting away with it, either by amnesty or other way. They see them in court, not in the box but among the audience. Lu-tsenko and Tymoshenko have killed no one, yet they’re in jail. Why? Is this justice?
“Well, there are appeal procedures. Let’s wait and see. True, I find some of our court rulings hard to explain. It’s also true that some ‘majority’ nominees kill fellow humans. But then there are court ru-lings, there are judges who make them. Everyone knows that judges can be bribed. We’re combating this phenomenon. Recently the head of an employment relief foundation was caught red-handed and we let the people know how much he had earned by way of bribes and the man will stand trial. A deputy finance minister was arrested previously.”
Yes, you’re combating corruption, but its affectivity rates a separate story. However, I would like to pay you a compliment. You appeared in ICTV’s Freedom of Speech talk show. I was pleasantly surprised by your straightforward approach. Didn’t your Parteigenossen scold you afterward?
“Hmm… I keep telling them let’s be human, our posts won’t last for-ever. We have to acknowledge some traditions and rules of the game. I’m who I am and I will stay that way.”
