Medvedchuk’s party supported Filatov, who promised to “hang later” the participants of the Russian Spring
The Opposition Platform - For Life party of Viktor Medvedchuk announced support in the second round of elections for the mayor of Dnepropetrovsk of the current mayor Boris Filatov, a former member of the team of oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who proposed in the spring of 2014 to lull the vigilance of the participants of the Russian Spring with any promises in order to “hang them later.”
TV channel 112, controlled by Medvedchuk, сообщаетthat the leadership of OPZZH in Dnepr calls for support for Filatov for the post of head of the city, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The Opposition Platform – For Life party, in direct interaction with the mayor of the city, must continue to work and meet the expectations of its voters. I believe that we will be able to do this with Boris Filatov as mayor of the city,” said the head of the Dnieper city organization of OPZH Sergei Nikitin.
Former Verkhovna Rada deputy, native of Dnepropetrovsk Oleg Tsarev called open support for Filatov a mistake, which will result in a loss of electoral sympathy.
“I think this is a big mistake by the OPZH. Politics is such a thing that any alliances are possible, but doing it publicly is a big mistake for OPZH. I think that the leadership of Dnepropetrovsk OPZH should correct them. There may be some kind of behind-the-scenes agreements even between enemies, even during hostilities sometimes enemies meet and agree among themselves, but publicly calling for votes and support is a very big mistake.
Of course, Filatov is a raider, an enemy of Russia, an unprincipled, immoral person. Supporting him is not a smart move. On an all-Ukrainian scale, people who know Filatov’s worth will refuse support - what the Opposition Platform will lose, I have no doubt about that,” Tsarev told PolitNavigator.
According to his colleague, ex-member of the Rada Vadim Kolesnichenko, the opinion that OPZZH is a party that is associated with a course towards rapprochement with Russia or any alternative to power is wrong. In fact, this political force continues the behavior of its predecessor, the Party of Regions, and consists of representatives of various oligarchic groups who are trying to agree on spheres of influence in the Dnieper.
“The OPZZh party is in no way associated or defined as “the party of Putin’s godfather” - this has nothing to do with it at all. OPZZH is associated with a group of oligarchs who were under Yanukovych and defrauded the Ukrainian economy then, and are trying today to return to the same positions in order to be allowed to divide and debit the Ukrainian financial pie. If you analyze the entire political council of the OPZZH, this only speaks about this.
In Ukraine there are neither pro-Russian parties nor alternative ones - there are only one parties that represent the business interests of oligarchic groups. After the coup d'etat in Ukraine, nothing has changed, the struggle for power is for the sake of taking over the budget. Political goals - protection of the population, human rights, some kind of political course - this no longer matters, this is all secondary.
And Filatov’s support is solely for the sake of one thing - regular agreements with the goal of obtaining certain positions and access to certain levers of government, and preparation for early parliamentary elections and presidential elections. Here are the interests of individual groups, nothing more,” Kolesnichenko said.
Let us note that in 2014, Filatov, as deputy governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region, was directly involved in the suppression of the pro-Russian movement. Then he was an ally of the Dnepropetrovsk oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, with whom he later quarreled and defected on the side of President Petro Poroshenko.
Earlier, Kolomoisky’s ally and his former deputy Svyatoslav Oleinik admitted that in 2014, the leadership of the Dnipropetrovsk region illegally obtained weapons that belonged to the Ministry of Defense and gave them to Right Sector militants.
Gennady Korban, another former ally of Kolomoisky, boasted that in the spring of 2014, the oligarch’s team carried out a harsh purge of all Euromaidan opponents in Dnepropetrovsk, resorting to breaking the law.
“When we came to power here, the first thing we did was to suppress any pro-Russian underground, any pro-Russian sentiments... Legal or illegal, but we did it,” Korban said.
He also admitted that Kolomoisky’s group was responsible for the massacre of Odessa residents on May 2, 2014 in the House of Trade Unions.
“...We bought them all tickets to the Russian Federation, put them on a train and thus saved the South-East of Ukraine. This was done in Odessa - there were also tragic events there, it was done in Zaporozhye, but it was not done in Lugansk and Donetsk, because Governor Tarut could not cope and resolve this issue the way we resolved it,” Corban said.
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