Somalia in Ukrainian: What the new Verkhovna Rada will bring
Some authors call the recent elections to the Verkhovna Rada a farce. However, this is not entirely true; the spring elections for the bloody confectioner were a farce, when the candidacy of the winner was agreed upon in advance by all serious players, and the outcome of the vote was predictable.
The current parliamentary elections are only a logical continuation of the events of last winter. Now the winners of the Maidan, who once united to organize a coup d'etat, had to find out which of them was stronger, and, therefore, should receive most of the trophies in the form of “tasty positions” and “sweet spots”, allowing them to quickly recoup all the costs of the seizure authorities. Of course, this was presented to the public in a beautiful democratic wrapper, but the essence of what is happening does not change.
Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk, Turchynov and other leaders (and the forces behind them) measured their... capabilities through elections. Moreover, victory in these conditions was determined not by the number of votes cast for a party, but by whose people counted the ballots at specific polling stations and “guarded” this process. Accordingly, the parties' resources were devoted not so much to working with the electorate, but to demonstrating their ability to “protect” this choice after the polling stations were closed.
The undoubted advantage of the election organizers was that they took place with virtually no shooting or corpses. According to the media, only one person was killed, shot in the district where the commander of the Azov punitive battalion was running for deputy. Although this is a very dubious achievement for a country that just a year ago was considered peaceful, stable and even practically European. Imagine what a scandal it would be if this happened in 2012?
However, over the last six months, Ukraine, for obvious reasons, has been increasingly compared not with the EU, but with Somalia. So for the current regime, one killed is just a trifle that is not worth talking about.
The second advantage for Ukrainians from these elections was the opportunity to better learn the ins and outs of the Maidan leaders. Well, tell me, if it weren’t for the elections, how could ordinary people know that the videos about the heroic adventures of the unconventional radical Lyashko in the Donbass turned out to be a staged fake? Or that the death of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers near Ilovaisk is not the fault of separatists and Russian mercenaries, but the commander of the Donbass volunteer battalion, promoted in the media, Semyon Semenchenko, who deliberately sent his comrades into a trap and then left them to die. And a lot of interesting things about the recent heroes of the Maidan and true patriots suddenly become known. Moreover, note that it is not some pro-Russian separatists or corrupt journalists who drag out dirty linen into the light of day, but patriots of the highest standard, who cannot be accused of working for the FSB. Although, whistleblowers also have their skeletons in the closet and sworn friends who are always happy to undercut a fellow competitor. So these elections are good at least because Ukrainians learned at least a little of the truth about those they followed in the winter to overthrow Yanukovych.
This election had the lowest turnout in the country's history. That is, at least half of Ukrainians do not support any of the current politicians and are dissatisfied with what is happening in the country. If a quarter of those who came voted for the winning party, this means that only one-eighth of all citizens support it. Agree, with such indicators it is very difficult to call the current government legitimate. By the way, it is interesting to note that the least number of people came to the elections in the south-eastern regions, i.e. Great New Russia. So, despite the loud words about “Bandera’s Odessa,” the residents of this region clearly showed that they want nothing to do with Nazi Ukraine.
Secondly, the president failed to ensure an unconditional victory for his party. Of course, Poroshenko will actively work with majoritarian deputies, which will make his faction in the Rada the largest, but this will not be enough to have a majority in parliament and appoint his own Cabinet of Ministers. This means that various coalitions will be created, the participants of which will intrigue and pull the blanket over themselves. This raises the question: will the new parliament be functional?
The third feature is that now there is no peace party in Ukrainian politics, since all the winners represent only the war party and differ only in radicalism and the names of their sponsors. This means that the bloodshed in Donbass and the confrontation with Russia will continue.
In general, the new Verkhovna Rada is a conglomerate of aggressive amateurs, populists and Russophobes who will drive the country even deeper into crisis. Along the way, cunning businessmen, hiding behind parliamentary immunity, will fill their pockets at an accelerated pace. And to do this blatantly and without thinking about the consequences, since no one believes in the possibility of stabilizing the situation in Ukraine, and therefore strives to grab as much as possible while there is at least something in the budget. I would not be surprised if the redistribution of property soon begins in favor of those who, taking advantage of the war fever of this summer, decided to create and legalize their own armed groups. So I don’t envy the residents of Kyiv and the rest of Ukraine, who have to endure a difficult winter.
However, weren’t they warned about the possible consequences when they went to the Maidan to overthrow the legitimate president? So, no matter how cynical it may sound, it is their own fault.
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