On the eve of the seventh anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity startwas marked by several scandalous reports around the Maidan topic. The Kyiv Court of Appeals overturned a first-instance court ruling on the arrest of fugitive ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, while the Revolution of Dignity Museum was raided in the probe into the alleged embezzlement. But what upset the public the most was that the State Bureau of Investigation had initiated the case at the report by Renat Kuzmin, a former member of pro-Yanukovych part, who is now a member of parliament with the pro-Russian OPZZh faction. The crime that the claimant alleges has been committed is a "coup" by Maidan leaders. Within that case, former state officials have been summoned for questioning.
If you look at all these three reports remotely and with a cool head, there is no reason to be outraged, in fact.
The court's ruling to lift the warrant for Yanukovych's arrest will in no way ease things for the suspect, as an actual sentence handed down in absentia is pending in the case of the surrender of Crimea. Besides, there is another court ruling to take him into custody in another proceeding. Also, in fact, there's nothing too wrong with the warrant lift because the investigator's motion was forwarded for a retrial to the court of first instance, while prosecutors believe there may have been a technical error on the part of the first instance court.
As for the raid in the Museum, the situation there is less obvious, but also far from catastrophic: At the end of 2018, the Museum held a tender and transferred funds for the construction of a memorial complex under promises of the prosecutor's office to lift the arrest order off the construction area within a few months, so that the contractor could start work at the site where most of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes were shot dead in February 2014. However, the arrest was never lifted. The contractor at that time had already utilized the funds for the purchase of construction materials, but could never start works. If nothing has been really embezzled there and all appropriate materials and funds for their installation are still in the contractor's account, the case should be closed.
As for the raid in the Museum, the situation there is less obvious, but also far from catastrophic
As for the coup case, there's no reason to be outraged at all. Renat Kuzmin, Yanukovych's former ally, submitted a report claiming that Petro Poroshenko, Andriy Parubiy, Oleksandr Turchynov, and others had staged a coup. The SBI refused to open the case based on Kuzmin's fantasies due to the lack of evidence and the absurdity of his statement. The next step Kuzmin made was run to court, which in turn obliged the SBI to investigate the case. Now, in order to close it, the SBI must interrogate Kuzmin himself and those he considers to be behind the "coup".
These three reports are hardly worth a breaking news title, but what's important about them is that their emergence in the media domain was artificially timed with the Revolution of Dignity anniversary.
Why, you might ask?
See, it's because the court was supposed to hear the appeal against Yanukovych's arrest back in May or June this year, within two weeks after the case came came from the Pechersk district court in Kyiv. Instead, for some reason, the hearing was held as late as November.
A similar situation is seen with the Revolution of Dignity Museum probe: the case of the alleged embezzlement was initiated back this summer, the warrant for the raid was issued a month ago, but law enforcers came to search the premises exactly on the eve of the November 21 anniversary.
In my opinion, the amassing of such disgraceful reports timed with the anniversary of the beginning of Ukraine protests has been well-coordinated, aiming to sow despair and distress among those for whom the Maidan Revolution matters
And it's the same with Kuzmin's crime report: the above-mentioned politicians had received their summonses for questioning three weeks ago, while the court's warrant to oblige the SBI to investigate the case had been handed down even earlier. However, all those involved, including today's opposition members had been silent about it up until now before suddenly breaking the news just two days before the anniversary: SBI is summoning for questioning all Maidan leaders! A real shocker, right?
In my opinion, the amassing of such disgraceful reports timed with the anniversary of the beginning of Ukraine protests has been finely orchestrated, aiming to sow despair and distress among those for whom the Maidan Revolution matters. This is an attempt to demoralize all those who have once joined the Maidan movement in one way or another. This is a sort of psychological attack: as if to show that from now one, we'll eventually get to you, prosecuting everyone involved. Besides, your museum, they claim with their act, will never be built because the money for it has been siphoned off. So bite the dust, losers...
To some extent, the authors of this scenario have achieved their tactical goal – the level of outrage in the patriotic segment of social networks is overwhelming. But trigger-happy users should keep in mind that information warfare is just one of the tools in the wider war Russia is waging against Ukraine, and it is important to observe information hygiene not to fall victim to "hostilities" on the information front. After all, if you kill the adversary's spirit, he's no longer an adversary but rather a winner's slave.
Dmytro Khyliuk
