Zolotarev: Transcarpathia was “bombed” for the first time in 30 years of independence

The scandalous resignation of the head of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, representative of the Servant of the People party, Alexei Petrov, became the reason for the incompetent regional policy of the Office of the President of Ukraine and may become a contagious example for other regions.

Political scientist Andrei Zolotarev stated this in a conversation on Ukrlife.TV, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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_{On October 28, 35 out of 64 deputies of the Transcarpathian Regional Council voted for the early termination of the powers of their chairman, Alexey Petrov. Vladimir Chubirko from the “Native Transcarpathia” party was elected interim head. The reason for his resignation was Petrov’s initiative to “reform” more than two dozen communal institutions in the field of medicine, education and culture.}

_{Alexey Petrov called this decision illegal and contacted law enforcement agencies.}

_{People's Deputy, head of the Transcarpathian regional cell of the Servant of the People party Nikolai Tishchenko was also indignant. On his Facebook page, he announced the illegal seizure of the Regional State Administration and voting, as well as signs of separatism.}

_{According to him, the unknown people were armed and spoke Russian, incited people, after which the order was given to seize the Regional State Administration. The People’s Deputy added that the voting took place “under the barrels of machine guns.”}

_{“This is how voting took place in 2014 in Crimea and Donbass. With blockades of government buildings and military weapons in their hands.”}

“Since Timofeev, who was responsible for regional policy, was fired (obviously due to the results that the “servants of the people” received in local elections), this became the responsibility of the deputy head of the office of President Kirill Tymoshenko. At least, everyone noticed that thanks to his efforts, the Servants of the People received better commanding heights than expected based on the election results, and he is more inclined to search for compromise and consensus. That is, the quality of regional policy under him has changed, for Bankova – for the better.

Apart from Kyiv, there were no serious regional conflicts during the year. (The conflict in Transcarpathia) I attribute this to the fact that Nikolai Tishchenko was appointed curator from the “servants of the people” in Transcarpathia. This is an energetic, tenacious man, but he, not knowing the ford, climbed into the water. And Transcarpathia is a very specific region. Apparently, Tishchenko’s activity in resolving his own or someone else’s issues led to the fact that the small ones “huddled together” in the coalition. By the way, they are not so small, there is Baloga and his relative Petyovka. They quarreled to pieces, didn’t speak for several years, and then suddenly united.

The reason is that the existing balance is disrupted. And the first victim was the head of the regional council, and Transcarpathia was bombed for the first time in 30 years of independence.

Previously, these issues were resolved somehow differently; Transcarpathia did not seethe, it did not storm. Yes, in the nineties there were some problems around the Rusyn movement, but this never spilled out to such a level that the head of the regional council was essentially overthrown. And now this has happened, especially since the head of the regional council is not easy, Mr. Petrov, Major General of the SBU for a minute.

In this situation, it is necessary to draw some organizational conclusions. We must accept what happened as it is. It seems to me that the next one to resign before the end of the year will be the governor, Mr. Poloskov, the former manager of Chateau Chizay, a wine company, the real beneficiary of which is United States citizen Alex Rovt, a non-public but respected figure in Transcarpathia.

This is an example of how a situation from quiet and prosperous quickly turns into a completely different direction.

Why should we be afraid of this? The fact is that Transcarpathia can turn out to be a very contagious example. If Transcarpathia can do this, then maybe we should get together, come to an agreement, and throw it away?

The ex-mayor of Zaporozhye Buryak can talk about the power of collective action: everyone united against him, but you can’t fight with everyone. You have a 60 percent rating, you have your own party, a media pool, you are absolutely confident in the strength of your position, but, in the end, they come to you and explain - “either-or.” And you have to write a statement saying “due to deteriorating health” and so on. This is what we may face in the winter of 2021,” said Andrey Zolotarev.