The congress of the remnants of the Party of Regions turned into squabbles and splits

Kyiv, March 29 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) – The congress of the remnants of the Party of Regions in Kyiv on Saturday turned into squabbles and splits, the Navigator correspondent reports.

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 “Navigator - Kiev” в Facebook or In contact with

First, Viktor Yanukovych and Mykola Azarov were expelled in absentia from the ranks of the “blue and white” party.

However, representatives of Donbass still sat on the presidium of the congress - oligarch Boris Kolesnikov and ex-speaker Vladimir Rybak, who had renounced Yanukovych, as well as the head of the faction Alexander Efremov.

This caused discontent in the hall.

“With all due respect to the Donetsk party organization, you cannot create a party on the principle of a joint-stock company,” said former Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, representing the Kyiv region.

“Since you carried out the policy, you did not need to be on the presidium. It would be masculine. And so we hold the congress as if nothing is happening on the street,” said “regionalist” Julius Ioffe to Kolesnikov, Efremov and Rybak sitting on the presidium.

“I don’t welcome what’s happening at the congress. We must honestly say that we created Yanukovych. And it all started with such congresses. We voted for candidates to the Supreme Council without seeing the lists. I, the deputy head of PR, learned three times from the media about the postponement of the congress. Who appointed you as leader? Nobody warned me,” Sergei Tigipko was indignant, looking at Rybak, the leader of the meeting.

Efremov had to respond to criticism. He explained that Rybak received the status of leading the congress because he is the first deputy head of the party.

“Sergey Leonidovich, read the material part. You can accuse me of something else, but not of this,” Rybak himself justified himself.

The main issue of the congress was the election of a candidate for the presidential elections (although neither Russia nor the former head of the Party of Regions, Viktor Yanukovych, recognizes them).

Even before the congress, the already mentioned Boyko, Tigipko, as well as the ex-governor of the Kharkov region Mikhail Dobkin and the “regional” Oleg Tsarev announced their desire to participate in the campaign.

Tigipko and Dobkin were considered the favorites. Tsarev did not come to the congress at all.

Dobkin’s candidacy was supported by Odessa resident Nikolai Skorik, who, however, represented Crimea at the congress on the basis of the fact that he worked for a long time in the government of Vasily Dzharta in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

“If we claim to be a national party, then we must be the party of the entire country. In this regard, Tigipko’s candidacy has a chance of uniting the country,” Skorik said.

However, unexpectedly, Tigipko was crushed by a representative of Lugansk, recalling how he left the headquarters of Viktor Yanukovych in 2004 on the eve of the “third round”. Tigipko, having lost the elections as a PR candidate, is unlikely to remain in the ranks of the “white-blues,” the speaker stated.

As a result, the majority of delegates supported Dokbin's candidacy.

“I know my ratings are still undeservedly high. I will not withdraw my candidacy. I’ll go to the polls,” Tigipko did not agree with this result.

“We understand perfectly well what will happen after this congress. We will have problems. Part of our electorate will leave,” stated delegate Sergei Kaltsev from Zaporozhye.

Yuriy Boyko clarified that the split would be another blow to the political force - “west of Dnepropetrovsk” there are no longer any Party of Regions organizations - there is “mass persecution and intimidation” against the “white-blues”.