On the anniversary of the Euromaidan Poroshenko stressed that the Revolution is not over / Photo from UNIAN

Week’s milestones. Anniversary without celebration, high-voltage tension in Crimea and echo of the runoff elections

13:50, 23.11.2015
2 min.

Anniversaries of the Euromaidan and the Revolution were held without pathos and sense of deep satisfaction with the changes in the country. Ukraine stopped supplying electricity to the annexed Crimea under dramatic circumstances. The runoff mayoral elections in Ukraine’s major cities proved problematic for some of the winners.

The last ten days of November in Ukraine is associated with the anniversary of revolutionary transformations. However, this time some activists mistook the event marking the Day of Freedom and Dignity with mourning over those who had died in protests, the so-called Heavenly Hundred. The country's leaders tried to be discreet: President Poroshenko stressed that the Revolution is not over, while Prime Minister Yatsenyuk urged citizens not to give up. Yatsenyuks seemed to have meant not only the implementation of the government’s action plan.

Probably the only thing that united politicians in recent days was the increased nervousness. The epitome of it was MP Volodymyr Parasyuk who, in a matter of a couple of days, kicked the top official of SBU security service in the head right at the meeting of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee, and also disrupted the briefing by the Assistant Prosecutor General. Neither the SBU general, Vasil Pisnya, nor the prosecutor’s office employee Vyacheslav Kutsenko carry the ultimate truth, but the behavior of one of the most popular deputies is despicable. He sort of gives an example of how the public servants are aware that they do something wrong but they are still oblivious how to change the situation.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk is determined to defend his chair, actively promoting the government’s fight against the shadow privatization and hinting that the members of his People’s Front party will not remain in the Coalition in case he is sacked from post. However, the collapse of the Coalition and snap parliamentary elections is anything but the best scenario for the People’s Front, and even the most daredevil party representatives understand this.

Видео дня

Termination of power supply to the Russian-annexed Crimea was quite an ambiguous move. The blast at the power transmission lines could hardly be called an adequate step, however it has been welcomed by many Ukrainians. As a minimum, they see it as a response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev believes that the electricity supply can only be restored inexchange for political concessions from Russia. On the Ukrainian part it would to be great to add to this idea (at least in general terms, without disclosing the secret intentions) the strategy of the return of the Crimean peninsula under Ukraine’s control.

The second round of mayoral elections in Ukraine saw some unexpected continuation. Announced victory of Opposition Bloc’s Yury Vilkul in the industrial city of Kryviy Rih was challenged with fierce resistance, not only by the supporters of his rival, Georgiy Myloboh, but also by the representatives of other political forces. It suddenly became clear that the regional organizations of Coalition parties had been in fact “sponsored” by their opponent. I don’t believe that “direct democracy” will be introduced in the city as MP Yehor Sobolev pledged, but I do believe that it’s too early for Vilkul to celebrate his victory.

Yevgeny Magda

Loading...
We use cookies
Agree!