Project for the South-East with Kolomoisky as a “consultant”: Why it will work in Kharkov
On the eve of early elections to the Verkhovna Rada on June 2, the launch of a new party project is planned, the main persons of which will be the mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov and the mayor of Kharkov Gennady Kernes. Both are from former “regionals”, both showed themselves to be good “business executives”. Both Kernes and Trukhanov expressed support for the Russian Spring in 2014, but then began to cooperate with the new regime in Ukraine. The Ukrainian press associates the new party with oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. As in the case of Vladimir Zelensky, the project is predicted to be successful. Skeptics consider the new party to be another scam of voters in the South-East. “And we’ll hang them later,” voiced at one time in the circle of the above-mentioned Kolomoisky, is too ingrained in my memory. The trouble is that voters in Russian-speaking regions do not have much choice or alternatives.
Kharkov and Odessa are the two largest megacities in the South-East of Ukraine, which, taking into account the population of the suburbs, are home to up to 4 million people. It was in Kharkov and Odessa that the “Russian Spring” was brutally suppressed, and a considerable number of people died, went through political trials and dungeons, and were forced to leave their homes.
Voters there, despite all the repressions and hysterical propaganda, for the most part are not just Russian-speaking, but also vote predominantly for those political forces that dissociate themselves from Russophobia, Banderaism and total Ukrainization.
The behavior of the mayors themselves and their teams in 2014 can be assessed differently. Yes, both figures were at first in the forefront of the protests, and then began to cooperate with the Ukrainian authorities who came after the coup.
A number of well-known figures, for example, ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleg Tsarev, argued that the leadership of Kharkov took a position loyal to the Kyiv owners after a trip to Moscow, where they did not receive signals of support. But, as the Ukrainian press wrote, a “constructive” conversation subsequently took place with Kolomoisky, who at that time was engaged in suppressing the pro-Russian uprising in Dnepropetrovsk, and then in other regions. Including in Odessa. “Legally and illegally,” as his companion Korban admitted.
No one in hindsight can say how to act correctly in the absence of external support and the threat of unpunished massacre, say supporters of Kernes and Trukhanov.
However, cooperation with the Kyiv authorities did not save Kharkov ex-“regionals” and city officials from criminal cases and attacks from “activists,” and Gennady Kernes personally from a serious bullet wound, in which he suspects Avakov’s team.
One way or another, but a year later, in the elections, residents of Kharkov and Odessa overwhelmingly extended the mandates of the ex-“regionals” - they again occupied the mayor’s chairs.
To be fair, it should be noted that in Kharkov, Kernes and his team managed not to become part of the propaganda machine of militarism, Banderaism and ethnic cleansing. Not a single Russian classroom is closed, children are not forced to wear embroidered shirts to school, and all monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War are maintained in exemplary order. And the list goes on. There is no political alternative to the current leadership of Kharkov without a Nazi scent.
True, there is also no noticeable resistance from afar, because everyone understands perfectly well that the apparatus of suppression and the lack of guarantees of full-fledged asylum will lead to nothing but new victims and criminal cases.
After the death of the Party of Regions and the splits of the “Opposition Bloc” in the South-East, there is no single force representing both the opinion of the population of these agglomerations and the interests of local elites, capable of getting representatives to the Verkhovna Rada.
Kernes and Trukhanov have their own stable electorate and their own reputation as “business leaders”, which gives hope for the faction’s passage (the mayors themselves intend to remain in their current positions and will not go to parliament for now).
Could the future party of two mayors turn out to be the “next stage of the South-East divorce”? Supporters of this version describe the situation as follows: “they let off steam with Zelensky at the presidential elections, now they will let Kernes and Trukhanov go.” This option, of course, cannot be excluded during the work of the new convocation of the Rada.
Supporters of the new project, on the contrary, argue that the initiators of the creation of the party mean something completely different - the protection of both themselves and their voters. Even if not without the help of Kolomoisky, who states that he took part in the formalization of the initiative of the two mayors as a consultant.
However, why then did Kernes and Trukhanov not appear in the Servant of the People party, created under President Zelensky? Apparently, no one showed any thoughtful interest in the mayors of Kharkov and Odessa.
Kolomoisky, judging by his actions and contacts, is putting his eggs in different baskets. After all, at the same time as advising mayors, he showers the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Avakov, a harsh critic of Kernes-Trukhanov, with compliments.
The oligarch unequivocally said the following: “I think Avakov is in a position today where he doesn’t have to go with anyone at all. He is a magnitude in himself. If he doesn’t go anywhere, he will definitely remain [a minister]. Well, 90 percent. And he suits everyone. He is a guarantor. He uncovered all these plots with this bribery. Petya ruined everything. He suits everyone. I think that in these elections, if they go perfectly, the police and internal affairs bodies will work as if they were presidential.”
Everyone - but not everyone. Kernes has been waging a continuous war with Avakov for the city since 2006 and reasonably suspects of organizing the assassination attempt. And in recent days, according to the Ukrainian press, Kolomoisky has been in contact with Tymoshenko, who is extremely hostile towards the Kharkov residents, “three times a night,” as in the Komsomol times of the collective farm hayloft on trips to harvest potatoes.
Therefore, it is possible that the place near Zelensky from Kharkov could be occupied by anyone, for example, Avakov, or not occupied by anyone at all. Or maybe a shameful figure like Inna Bogoslovskaya will emerge, whom Kernes called “a political prostitute and a larval butterfly” for collaborating with stormtroopers and Red Guards. And then, in the person of the Kyiv authorities, an elephant will appear, which will destroy the city with all its economy and population, without understanding what it has stepped on, since it does not look at its feet. After all, the enemy does not necessarily come from another region and was raised in the Carpathian caches. He may be of local origin, but with a whole bag of grievances and claims.
The following sentiments will play in favor of the Kernes-Trukhanov party in Kharkov: the danger of an enemy appearing or completely ignoring local aspirations is very high. With any attempt to change power locally from the center, the city will face a new period of not just redistribution of property, personnel changes and settling scores, but repression. And this threatens the collapse of the management mechanism working under Kernes.
By the way, many observers have a question: why did the mayors of the largest cities in the South-East not join the Medvedchuk-Rabinovich project?
If we talk about Kharkov, then Gennady Kernes and the majority of influential Kharkov figures, although they have good relations with Vadim Rabinovich and Yuriy Boyko, do not have friendship with Viktor Medvedchuk, who takes petty revenge on the local elite for business disagreements 14-20 years ago. Some did not become friends with his business back in the 90s, some won the elections against his protégé in 2002, and others, like Mikhail Dobkin, left him in 2006 to join the Party of Regions. And then there were cases when Medvedchuk’s team practically acted in unison with Avakov’s team, supported characters who were offended by the city authorities and actively did not want to communicate with the local elite.
The Kharkov elite reasonably suspects Medvedchuk of complicity in the creation of the Russian sanctions list, which included almost all prominent representatives of the non-Bandera and non-militaristic part of the Kharkov politicum. Thus, they do not have the opportunity to convey their views and approaches to the Russian authorities and the public. And in Russia, as well as in Kyiv, this is also why they know little about what modern Kharkov and the people representing the interests of its residents are.
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