High expectations often lead to disappointment. It looks like the Donbas is now experiencing what western and central Ukraine had experienced in 2005-06. Then, the Orange Revolution-induced short-lived enthusiasm was followed by a sharp drop in the level of trust in government.
The residents of two apartment buildings in Kostiantynivka, a small town in the Donetsk region, famed as the glass capital of Ukraine, have recently declared their neighborhood a Party of Regions-free territory, the local newspaper Provintsia reports, according to the Obkom website.
“We, the residents of the buildings No. 4 and No. 6 on the Kosmonavtiv Boulevard, do hereby declare our neighborhood to be the PARTY OF REGIONS-FREE TERRITORY! The party, as represented by the Kostiantynivka City Council members, has brazenly and cynically robbed us of our buildings’ adjacent areas and almost started constructing yet another store right under our windows. We never authorized them to do it! Therefore, we pledge that we will no longer support the party or vote for it as it violates the will of the people! We call on all citizens of this country not to repeat our mistakes and to support our initiative!”
Moreover, the enraged citizens have gone beyond mere declarations and dug a symbolic grave for the pro-government party. It has turned out that the residents fought to keep their courtyard intact since 2003. They litigated, went from one bureaucrat to another, came to blows with the developers, blocked a backhoe with their bodies, and most importantly, warned the party’s local and regional branches that they would protest in the abovedescribed way, but despite it all, members of the city council, with 35 seats out of 40 controlled by the party, have recently voted to allow the store’s construction to go ahead. “There were three children’s playgrounds here previously, and our children and grandchildren played here. There were slides, sandboxes, and gazebos. They came and poured land into a sandbox without warning. We have enough stores around here, but we want to see our children playing under our windows,” a resident says.
Mykhailo Chechetov MP assured our reporter that the situation would be sorted out, and the guilty would be punished: “Nobody says that our party has no idlers, thieves, or moneygrubbers among its members. We do have them. Unfortunately, we do have them in the Donbas, too. However, we treat our own people and outsiders equally. We do not conceal sins of our fellow party members. I do not want to say that we do not have swindlers among us; on the contrary, there are some crooks. We will eradicate them ruthlessly. Law enforcement agencies will look into the matter, and, should they find any improper actions there, these people would lose their jobs, while anybody found in breach of the law would serve a term behind bars, regardless of their party allegiance. All the same, the Donbas never gave birth to a traitor! Once they came to trust somebody, they will trust forever. Donbas and the Party of Regions are an organic whole. They are twins. They cannot be separated.”
It should be admitted that there is no credible and powerful alternative to the Party of Regions in its “birthplace” region as of yet. For now, the party’s main opponent in the Donbas is the popular disappointment. The operating word here, however, is “for now.” The sociologists say that it is the Donbas, among Ukrainian regions, where the social differentiation is the nation’s most pronounced, with the largest gap between those who are satisfied with life, and those who are totally unsatisfied with it. This discontent is still passive. But the events in Kostiantynivka show very well that everybody has their limits.
