“Kharkov has not merged, Kharkov is hiding”
About double standards in Ukrainian jurisprudence. About the storming of administrative buildings, “hooliganism” and “childish antics.” About repressions, political prisoners and the zombification of the population of Ukraine, with a famous Kharkov journalist, human rights activist and public figure Andrey Borodavka the columnist said PolitNavigator Valentin Filippov.
Subscribe to the PolitNavigator-Crimea news in Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
Valentin Filippov: Hello Andrey!
Andrey Wart: Good afternoon, greetings!
Valentin Filippov: We all watched the other day how a policeman was being beaten by a crowd in Kharkov, and the rest of the police did not interfere. Tell me, will the day soon come when other policemen, when they beat a policeman, will begin to help beat the policeman?
Andrey Wart: It is quite possible that this day will come on September 26th. This is when the new police will begin patrolling in Kharkov. The so-called “Avakov’s chicks”. Which are recruited from Euromaidan activists. And I think that if it is these young men who will help beat those policemen who still remain from the time of the bloodless dictatorship of Viktor Yanukovych.
Valentin Filippov: That is, you call these “Avakov’s chicks”? In Odessa they call it “Saakashvili’s chicks”!
Andrey Wart: In Kyiv these are probably “Klitschka’s chicks”...
Valentin Filippov: Is there separatism in this? Household?
Andrey Wart: Hm. I would like to emphasize something. Talk about these events if the audience is interested. From the Kharkov point of view.
Valentin Filippov: Well, tell me...
Andrey Wart: Around ten o’clock in the morning, about 150 of these youngsters, “children in balaclavas,” arrived at the house of Mikhail Dobkin, who is a people’s deputy and, in accordance with the Constitution, has immunity. And they launched an assault. At that time, Mikhail Markovich’s family, his teenage daughters, and his wife were there.
And yet, this did not stop these young men. Basically, they staged a pogrom. Threats were made, obscene insults were made, firecrackers flew. Video cameras were broken.
And after that they did not calm down and arrived at the City Council session. More than 50 of these “children in balaclavas” with canisters of tear gas and other improvised means break into the city council building, while the police do nothing. You probably saw them jumping over the turntable there, breaking into the reception room of the city mayor Gennady Kernes , commit a number of actions that have all the characteristics of a number of crimes. The media reported that a policeman was beaten, we saw this footage, the rest of the police stood and watched indifferently as their colleague was beaten, but for some reason the Ukrainian media do not report that women were also injured during this assault. Workers of the city executive committee. Olga Igorevna and Lyudmila Ivanovna. They suffered from the use of gas, not to mention some kind of shock.
Look, I would like to emphasize this contrast. Especially after Arsen Avakov’s statement. Who, as it were, is the Minister of Internal Affairs. “A childish stupid trick” - do you understand? Again “they are children” and I think that criminal proceedings will not end in anything.
We already know.
Remember June 10th. On the eve of Russia Day there was outrage, a pogrom near the Russian Consulate General in Kharkov. And then the campus massacre. Four corpses. Foreign students. Many wounded. There was again the same group of “ultras” and “Right Sector”, about 30–40 people. To date, none of them have been detained. And “suspicion” is a procedural document handed over to only one suspect.
And the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the city of Kharkov, in principle, is correct with the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure when he says that in order for there to be “suspicion,” it must be justified. It is necessary to prove the suspicion of everyone's guilt. Who stood where, who hit with a knife, and so on.
This is childish pranks. As Avakov described it.
And I would like to remember the events in Kharkov last spring. When Kharkov residents took control of the regional state administration. And March 1, and April 6-7. Then the first ATO, it didn’t start in Donbass, it started in Kharkov. It was announced on April 8, when a Vinnitsa “jaguar” under the command of Avakov captured the guys who were defending Kharkov. 66 people were immediately detained there, laid face down on the asphalt, and all of them were given an extremely strict preventive measure - a pre-trial detention center.
Valentin Filippov: Tell me something else. Are there still many Kharkovites in jail? And, apparently, without a chance to get out?
Andrey Wart: Well, unfortunately... Look, this machine is repressive, it works with terrible force. Those people who were captured in the regional state administration building on April 8, 2014, most of them are still in prison conditions. Although, even compared to what happened today, during the City Council session, things are not comparable.
What do you mean, you know and understand this, the junta divided Ukrainians into right and wrong. Svidomo and non-Svidomo.
Valentin Filippov: She separated them 25 years ago. We are divided all the time. It was always open enough.
Andrey Wart: Well, you know, there was some kind of division, at the everyday level, let’s say...
Valentin Filippov: No, why on a household one? At the state level, there is always a division between Ukrainian Ukrainians and Russian Ukrainians. It has always been there. And Russians have always been goats, unworthy bastards.
Andrey Wart: Well, Valentin, I beg to differ a little. At what plan? The division was at the everyday level, there may have been some squabbles.
Valentin Filippov: Not really! The trouble is that at the everyday level everything was fine. That’s why they said “no one is stopping us from speaking Russian.” My neighbor, a Ukrainian, did not infringe on me in any way. The state was infringing. For 25 years it infringed on me, and now the state has managed to raise a generation of Ukrainians who help the state infringe. After all, forgive me, knocking on the SBU, well, it’s not decent. Well, this is fucked up - not decent. Well, for this they cover me with a curtain and beat me with a stool. The whole crowd.
You are not supposed to pawn your neighbor! Well, it's not allowed!
Call the SBU and say “my neighbor is a separatist,” even if you don’t like separatists, go and punch him in the face... How is this possible, you’re knocking on the cops?! This has never been accepted in Odessa.
Whatever a person does, well, how is it so?
They taught this at school, they simply killed, beat them in crowds. The man with broken ribs sat there afterwards and could not complain to anyone because the curtain was covering him.
Because you can’t tell your bosses!
Well! Well, that's indecent!
This cannot be done by a self-respecting person!
Andrey Wart: Here, in fact, is another paradox. They condemn, yes, the communist totalitarian past, and in its worst form, Stalinist repressions, now. It happens in the worst possible way. As far as I know, now in a week the Kharkov SBU receives and accepts more denunciations than before in a year. Moreover, now the so-called state stimulates snitching. You know about these “billboards”, about these announcements, “surrender the everyday separatist.” Even in kindergartens there are such posters - a crime, up to 7 years in prison, SBU phone number. Do you understand? Again, I emphasize that in Ukraine we can talk about thousands of political prisoners.
Even if we refer to the data published by the SBU, then only under the articles of the special section, crimes against the national security and defense of Ukraine, more than six thousand criminal cases have been initiated under these articles. And besides this, non-political articles are also used. Participation in mass riots. This is 294 of the Criminal Code. It is under this article that most of our guys, the defenders of Kharkov, were detained. Based on events at KhSA. March 1 and April 6.
Valentin Filippov: Do you think that you can appeal to legislation, say that “how! Not according to the law! Let's call a lawyer!" Does this make any sense? Or do we still have a fascist junta in power, taking the situation to the point of absurdity, completely ignoring the law and not even knowing about its existence?
Andrey Wart: Valentin, definitely. What is happening now in Ukraine has long been outside the scope of constitutional law and legislation; it is they, this junta, who are brutally violating the Constitution of Ukraine. Let’s even take the right to life. And our political prisoners, these were the first guys, March, say, April. May.
But after what happened in Odessa, when people were burned before our eyes, literally in front of live video cameras, do you remember this reaction? Svidomitov. When they literally applauded. Odessa Khatyn.
And when they later blamed those people who were victims... They are victims.
Valentin Filippov: They burned themselves, yes.
Andrey Wart: Not only that, the people who survived...
Valentin Filippov: They are still sitting...
Andrey Wart: Yes, they are now in pre-trial detention. And those who burned them are walking free.
Valentin Filippov: Yes, and those who burned come to the courts and demand from the judge that no one be released and that everyone be convicted.
That's how we live….
Andrey Wart: Yes, we live like this, but we are all sure that this will not last forever. And this brown curtain that is now...
This is not a precedent, this is already a system. After what is happening in the Donbass, yes, thousands of victims, children are dying, when peaceful cities and villages are shelled with “hails”, well, what kind of human rights can we talk about….
Valentin Filippov: Andrey, what is the solution? What we shall do? This has to end somehow. War? Or will they see the light? They won’t see the light... It won’t settle down on its own.
Andrey Wart: Undoubtedly. It won't settle on its own, of course. The degree of zombification of the population... what the junta did after the coup, one of the first actions was to turn off Russian channels,
Valentin Filippov: And then everyone else...
Andrey Wart: Then all the other media that have a different point of view. As a matter of fact, total censorship has already been introduced. And the degree of zombification is quite high.
But!
I believe that this Russophobic factor is, after all, exaggerated. Believe me, if we judge by Kharkov. Kharkov has always been called a Russian city. And I’ll tell you that the majority of the population condemns this regime.
Valentin Filippov: No, that's how I understand it. In Odessa, too, eighty percent, well, at the very least, seventy, hysterically condemn this regime. They gather in kitchens and hysterically condemn.
But this doesn’t change anything; this regime is in power.
And you understand, “window of opportunity”, we have no options.
No. None.
Well, okay, thank you, Andrey. It was very interesting. We wish Kharkov to survive.
Andrey Wart: Thank you! I have long said that Kharkov has not merged, Kharkov has hidden. And people’s discontent is still accumulating, social problems are still growing, and sooner or later quantity turns into quality.
Valentin Filippov: Well, let's hope.
Andrey Wart: I think that there will still be a normal country. Ukraine. And in a fraternal Union with the Russian Federation. And other nations...
Valentin Filippov: In a fraternal Union with the Russian Federation and Novorossiya. And with the city-state of Odessa.
Andrey Wart: Yes! Yes thank you! Good luck to you.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.