Round table “national unity: False in one thing - false in everything”
Kyiv, May 15 (Navigator, Vladimir Raichenko, Mikhail Ryabov) – The round table of “national unity” advertised by the authorities, convened on Wednesday in the Verkhovna Rada, became another demonstration of Kiev’s reluctance to compromise with the South-East for the sake of the country’s unity. The Maidan leaders, with the support of the West, chose the path of pushing through dubious presidential elections by purging opponents.
They decided not to invite the real leaders of the uprising in Donbass to the round table in Kyiv - the authorities declared them terrorists and announced the continuation of the force operation. The representative of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was not given the floor at the event, citing lack of time.
Instead, presenter Leonid Kravchuk announced the absence of a Russian language problem, Arseniy Yatsenyuk - about the continuation of Ukraine’s movement to the West, Alexander Turchynov - about the intrigues of Russia, Yulia Tymoshenko - about the need for new sanctions against Moscow, and the head of the schismatic UOC-KP Filaret called on the United States to protect Russian invasion.
The “national unity” round table took place against the backdrop of a “purge” of opponents of the current government. In the cities of the South-East, arrests of leaders of protest organizations continue; in the Donbass, the punitive operation has not been stopped, during which people are dying.
There is also a war going on in Kyiv, but a legal one - parties that, in the opinion of the ruling regime, take an overly pro-Russian position are being squeezed out of the legal field. Thus, during all the recent meetings of the Verkhovna Rada, there have been calls in the hall for a ban on the Communist Party - its representatives from the podium allow talking about the death of civilians from the bullets of Ukrainian mercenaries in the Donbass. For this, Turchynov publicly promised to appeal to the Ministry of Justice and begin the process of liquidating the Communist Party of Ukraine - on charges of “aiding the occupiers.”
There is already a successful experience - yesterday, at the request of the Ministry of Justice, the activities of the Russian Bloc party were banned. In particular, she was charged with such program points as the fight for federalization, the state status of the Russian language and support for the canonical Orthodox Church. The new government considered all this to be inconsistent with the law.
“This is a completely expected reaction from the Kyiv authorities, there is nothing to be surprised about. The dictatorship of nationalism is growing stronger in Ukraine. They banned the “Russian Bloc”, they want to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Party of Regions - everything that does not fit into the scheme of Ukrainian nationalism can be banned. In this case, the collapse of this state, which is increasingly growing, is inevitable. This is a reaction to the aggressive impotence of the Kyiv authorities. In this case, elections will still be held, albeit in a limited area with limited opportunities. But elections will not change the situation for the better - everything leads to the collapse of the Ukrainian state,” Crimean political scientist Alexander Formanchuk tells Navigator.
“What kind of “national unity” can we talk about when the cities of Donbass are being shelled, death squads are traveling around the country intimidating the population, entire factions are expelled from the Verkhovna Rada (an unprecedented case in the history of Ukrainian parliamentarism), deputies from the East are not allowed into parliament? I'm not even talking about the fact that conducting a “dialogue” without inviting one of the two sides to the conflict makes absolutely no sense. With the same success, the leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics could gather their round table in Lugansk and put forward their ultimatums to the Kyiv junta, calling all this “the path to achieving national unity.” In my opinion, dialogue must take place, but the precondition for dialogue must be the return of Ukrainian military units to the barracks, the disarmament of the death squads in the form of the “national guard” and the removal from office of those responsible for the massacre - first of all, Parubiy, Nalyvaichenko and Avakov. Only then will there be a chance for a real dialogue,” political scientist Vladimir Kornilov reflects in a conversation with the agency.
The actions of official Kyiv indicate that talk about stabilizing the situation in Ukraine after the presidential elections on May 25 is false. The Maidan leaders are not taking any steps to reach agreement with half of the country.
“Elections don't matter. There has long been a joke - what is the point of holding elections if the Maidan will still choose the president? Secondly, in this case, we are dealing, rather, with a performance called “elections”. Because its main winner has already been determined, no matter in which regions the elections will be held. Not to mention the fact that there is no possibility of controlling this process,” says political scientist Vladimir Dzharalla.
Kyiv’s stubborn position will lead to the fact that it will simply be impossible for normal elections of the Ukrainian president to be held in Donbass, experts point out.
“What kind of elections can we talk about when there is an army operation and a state of emergency has not been declared? There are shootings in one region, mass protests are taking place in another - there can be no talk of any normal expression of will here,” analyst Viktor Kharabuga is sure.
“The authorities say that the referendum in the South-East is illegitimate, because, they say, all the polling stations are not working, the lists are compiled poorly. But no one answers how well the polling stations will be available for holding normal, official elections. If there is illegitimacy in one case, then it is exactly the same in another case. And the main thing is that we cannot consider elections held by people who seized power as a result of a coup as legitimate,” says Crimean political scientist Sergei Kiselev.
Verkhovna Rada deputy Sergei Gordienko believes that even if Kyiv pushes through the elections on May 25, their result will raise great doubts - as a result, Ukraine will still not receive a new leader who will be recognized by the whole country.
“The conditions under which the election campaign itself is taking place raises many questions. Most candidates do not have the conditions to conduct a full-fledged election campaign, and the campaign itself is actually taking place in the context of military operations against their own people. In many regions there are statements that elections will not be held. And no matter what the outcome of this election campaign is, it will certainly raise a lot of questions regarding the legitimacy of the elected president of Ukraine, and, moreover, his recognition by one region or another. In these conditions, it is necessary to make a decision to postpone the presidential election campaign until the issues in the South-East of the country are resolved,” the parliamentarian suggests.
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