Pyrrhic victory for the “opposition”: Poroshenko holds tight to Odessa

The results of local elections in different regions of the South-East of Ukraine caused a lot of optimistic responses from opponents of the Kyiv regime. The parties embodying the forces of the Maidan were defeated here, losing to the heirs of the Party of Regions. Such assessments were based not so much on meticulous calculation of percentages and building hypothetical coalitions, but, first of all, on the violent reaction of the opposite side.

This impression can be exhaustively described by the formula: “Svidomo’s farts are bursting from...”, and then substitute options depending on the region: Kernes’s victory in Kharkov, the dominance of the Opposition bloc over dill in Dnepropetrovsk, the defeat of the mushroom candidate from Saakashvili in Odessa. I would like to say a few words about the latter.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

Subscribe to the news "PolitNavigator - Kyiv" in Facebook, Classmates or In contact with

City Council. Four columns of former regionals

When voting for the composition of the city council, the ballots of 38% of voters who came to the elections were distributed as follows: the party “Trust Deeds” of the former regional mayor Gennady Trukhanov received 33,3%, Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc “Solidarity” - 17,5%, the Opposition Bloc - 14,5%, the Ukrainian Maritime Party of another ex-regional member, the famous Sergei Kivalov, received 6,9% of the votes and, finally, “Self-Help” of Lviv Mayor Andrei Sadovoy - 5,5%.

It is interesting to look at the distribution of former regionals among the resulting factions. In “Trust Deeds” there were 40% of them, in BPP – 30%, OppoBlok – 25%, and in UMP (K) – 66%.

Everyone, of course, imagined that the coalition would be created by Trust Deeds, whose leader was fiercely fighting for the post of mayor with the BPP representative Borovik, and the Opposition Bloc, which, in theory, was in opposition to the president’s party.

In turn, Maidan supporters probably expected that Solidarity in the city council would show solidarity with Samopomich, and with its help would create a strong opposition coalition to resist the dark forces of revenge.

However, quite the opposite happened. Former regionals from Trust Affairs preferred to come to an agreement with former regionals from the Poroshenko Bloc, and leave the former regionals from the OB out of work.

Gennady Trukhanov speaks at a rally on Kulikovo Field

“Pro-Russian mayor” Gennady Trukhanov, as they carefully tried to introduce him to former PR voters, preferred to come to an agreement behind Saakashvili’s back with Alexei Goncharenko, a man who publicly took political responsibility for the “defeat of the separatist camp on the Kulikovo Field” on May 2 and became famous for his photographs in the background burnt corpses in the House of Trade Unions. It was the representative of the Kostusev family clan, Goncharenko, who entered the city council on the lists of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, and became the secretary of the city deputy assembly.

Alexey Goncharenko on the Kulikovo field

The leader of the Opposition Bloc faction, Mr. Orlov, who represents in the council the team of the former supervisor for the Odessa region Yura Enakievsky, seriously hoped to return to the position of deputy city mayor for construction, which he had chosen under the previous mayor, but it seems that he will not get this position. Needless to say, a faction led by such a person will somehow oppose itself to the pro-government majority.

Regional Council. The opposition bloc wins and loses

The full picture of the behind-the-scenes division of power in Odessa became clear after the session of the Regional Council.

With a turnout of 41%, votes for deputies of the regional council were distributed as follows: Opposition bloc 21,8%, BPP - 20,2%, Trust in Deeds - 11,1%, Yulia Tymoshenko's "Batkivshchyna" - 10,6%, "Vidrodzhennya" "- 7,4%, "Nash Krai" - 7,4%.

“Vidrodzhennia” was created at one time by the famous railway worker Kirpa, who was found dead in his own dacha with a bullet through his head and a pistol in his hands after the victory of the first Maidan. After the victory of the second Maidan, it was revived in the political arena as a project associated with Igor Kolomoisky. It was from “Vidrodzhennia” that Gennady Adolfovich Kernes ran in Kharkov. “Our Land” was created last year by a majoritarian from Bessarabia, Anton Kisse, who entered the parliament of the last convocation as a self-nominated candidate, but then joined the PR faction. It is believed that, like Orlov in the city council, he is closely connected with the Avramov brothers representing Yura Enakievsky. The Poroshenko Administration became interested in the regional project with a successful name, and eventually turned it into a franchise designed to take away votes from the Opposition bloc.

The Avramov brothers and Alexander Yanukovych

But, of course, ordinary people and commentators far from Odessa realities immediately created a virtual coalition of anti-Orange parties and expected it to be implemented in the Odessa regional council. And they didn’t wait.

At the last session, by a vote of 55 to 27, a representative of the Poroshenko bloc, the brother of one of the people's deputies of the presidential faction, was elected chairman of the Regional Council, and a representative of the fourth-placed Batkivshchyna party was elected as his first deputy. All the Opposition Bloc could do was leave the hall in protest. Of the 15 permanent commissions, the largest faction did not get a single one, but “Trust Deeds” Trukhanova, which took 3rd place in the elections due to the votes of the regional center, received the same number of commissions as the Poroshenko Bloc, which received twice as much. A mutually beneficial deal took place.

Free City of Chernomorsk

There is no need to be surprised by all this. The mayor of Odessa, Gennady Trukhanov, is a businessman representing a large international business structure in the city. His main interests are development, capital and road construction. Naturally, in a crisis, these industries can survive primarily on government and utility contracts. And in order for the right companies to receive these contracts, there must be complete and mutual agreement between Kiev, the presidential party in the region and the mayor.

Well, the final touch. In the satellite city of Odessa, Ilyichevsk, public hearings were held on the renaming of the city, as required by the harsh and immutable Ukrainian law on decommunization. Residents, from the mayor to the last pensioner, do not want to rename the city. They don't want to, but they will. The mayor himself, the once again re-elected “strong businessman” Khmelnyuk, explained to his fellow countrymen the hopelessness of the situation. Based on the results of public hearings, the townspeople humbly ask the Verkhovna Rada and the Institute of National Remembrance, which will have the final say, to christen the city Black Sea. Yes, yes, exactly the Black Sea. Apparently in honor of the “free city” in which the underground millionaire Koreiko lived from the unforgettable novel about Ostap Bender.

You and I live in a time when Mr. Koreiko, from a humble office worker leading a double life, has turned into a respected member of society. So why then wouldn’t there be a place for Chernomorsk in this life?

Looking through the materials about the public hearings in Ilyichevsk, I involuntarily caught myself thinking that I could easily imagine how, just as casually as the behind-the-scenes conspiracy with Poroshenko’s party, the mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov would accept the idea of ​​“returning the historical name Kochubiev to Odessa,” 600 the anniversary of which the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine obliged to celebrate this year. I think that no less convincingly than the mayor of Ilyichevsk he will explain to the townspeople that, of course, he himself does not want to change anything, but it is necessary - that means it is necessary.