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Lustration through fights and trash containers

Article by: Yana Polyanska
Translated by: Mariya Shcherbinina
The members of the government are being tossed into trash containers, have paint poured over them and even get beaten now – this is how ‘national lustration’ looks in action. Experts explain: the Ukrainians are in a radical mood, as they are tired of the inactivity, corruption and cynicism on part of the politicians throughout the years of independence. They also caution that if the government workers do not draw conclusions, lynching may start in Ukraine: thoughtless and unjust.

‘National lustration,’ which began with throwing members of the parliament into trash containers, continued with the beating of a member of the Party of Regions. One of the leaders of Opposition Block Nestor Shufrych, who came to Odesa to hold an electoral press-conference, was beaten on the steps of the oblast state administration building. Right Sector representatives participated actively in the fight, confirms Yury Mindiuk, the organization’s spokesman. According to him, the activists had initially only planned to throw the member of the parliament into the trash, however, Shufrych is “an unbalanced and aggressive person,” who provoked the beating himself.

“I understand he began the fight himself. He has always liked doing it and this time, too. It was definitely not the conception we had in mind. It happened on the scene,” added Mindiuk.

The Opposition Block press service published a statement saying that “a bunch of hooligans tried to disrupt the press-conference,” however, Shufrych had not lost his nerve and “rebuked the attackers before reinforcements arrived.” As a result of the fight near the Odesa oblast state administration, member of the Parliament Nestor Shufrych sustained a closed traumatic brain injury and a concussion.

Does Right Sector think they crossed the line having beaten Shufrych in Odesa?

The video made on location and uploaded to YouTube by user Yury Kozaryz shows how a crowd with red-and-black bands blocked Nestor Shufrych, prevented him from leaving the scene, pushed and beat him. From time to time the activists shouted to Shufrych that he had coordinated the titushky in Maidan and that he was guilty of murder. The video also shows how the people who escorted the member of the government were asking for a corridor to let them pass.

Yury Mindiuk comments: Right Sector understands that the activists overstepped legal limits. However, they are more concerned with the fact that lustration may not happen in Ukraine, and “former bandits who robed this country will never be held responsible.”

“It goes without saying that the national tribunal may exceed some legal limits. However, in reality, we are concerned with the fact that the government, the law enforcement in this country do not react in any way to the fact that criminals are still trying to govern and take advantage of their position,” said Mindiuk.

This is why, Mindiuk said, Right Sector had developed the “conception of lustration of past politicians through trash containers.” According to him, the organization is now holding an internal competition of ‘national lustration’: the participants select the most odious politicians whose place is among garbage. In this way, says he, Right Sector marks the politicians who should never work in the government again.

Whom has ‘national lustration’ already touched? 

A number of other politicians had gone through ‘national lustration’ before Nestor Shufrych. The ‘first bird’ was the instance when activists in April of 2013 threw snowballs at Party of Regions member Iryna Horina, Iryna Berezhna and Yulia Lyovochkina, as well as the advisor to the President at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, Maryna Stavniychuk.

The TrashBucketChallenge, or lustration of the government members by shoving them into the trash, began in 2014. This challenge was posed at various times to Oleh Rudenko, Oleksandr Danylchuk and Vitaly Fedak, members of the Parliament Vitaly Zhuravsky, Mykola Koretsky, Viktor Pylypyshyn, Serhiy Kuzmenko, Volodymyr Vovchenko, Oleksandr Kharlamov, former ‘regional’ Vitaly Hrushevsky, as well as the ‘otaman-separatist’ from Zaporizhya Oleksandr Panchenko. Radio Liberty created a database of all those who had been subject to ‘lustration.’

Experts: throwing them into the trash is the consequence of the government’s long-term policies

Nestor Shufrych’s case de-facto ended the stage of ‘trash-throwing’ and pushed national lustration towards physical violence. Social psychologist Viktor Pushkar explains the radicalization of the Ukrainian society with the fact that the judicial system is not doing its duty as it should be, therefore the aggression that stems from impunity of those who are guilty escalates.

“The attempts at violence or the so-called TrashBucketChallenge, when some members of the government are sat in trash collectors, are a symbolic humiliation, it escapes the limits of the legal field. And it may be considered lynching to an extent. It is necessary to establish a sufficient judicial system, otherwise grievous injuries or even political murders may follow,” he thinks.

According to political expert Serhiy Hayday, throughout all the years of independence politics was only a way of enrichment for the government. As a result, says he, the Ukrainians have accumulated “a strive for social revenge” against the politicians.

“It is not a provocation of any sort, it is the real state of society. I think that such a lustration through trash collectors is the soft option. Unfortunately, we are very close to possibly lynching,” he adds.

Lynching is next? 

Serhiy Hayday offers the parallel with the Great French Revolution, which historians date at 1789-1799. The events at the time are considered a breakthrough moment in the history of Western democracy, when republican order replaced absolute monarchy. This transformation was followed with radical moods in French society.

“The elites there were subject to deadly rotation by means of the guillotine. And each new team that came to rule France ended with the guillotine. The old class suffered first, the aristocrats and everyone connected to the monarchy. And then revolution ‘consumed’ those who was inadequate and unable to deal with the challenges at the time. I think there won’t be the same amount of blood as back then. But we are very close,” the political expert thinks.

Hayday: odious politicians should leave politics before it’s too late

According to the expert, the members of the government still don’t feel the moods in society, do not trash-throwing and paint-pouring seriously as ‘warning bells.’

Hayday predicts that aggression will continue to grow in society, which would result in innocent people suffering alongside the culprits. Hayday advises odious politicians to leave politics before it’s too late and not run in the elections. And those who are elected in the nearest elections have to really change the country, for the regular Ukrainian to feel that their life has gotten better. Improvement of life is able to calm down the aggression which is growing in society, he is convinced.

Translated by: Mariya Shcherbinina
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February 11: The Russian proposal at the Summit in Minsk is unacceptable – president of Ukraine Poroshenko

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February 11 – The Russian proposal at the Summit in Minsk is unacceptable – president of Ukraine Poroshenko. Russia deliberately disrupts agreements.

February 11 – 19 Ukrainian military were killed and 78 wounded as a result of shelling near the burial mound "Hostra Mogyla" close to Debaltseve and at other locations within ATO area, – informed the spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladyslav Seleznyov at a briefing on Wednesday morning.

February 11 – In Donbas pro-Russian militants shelled the positions of Ukrainian troops 27 times on the night of February 11th. Most of the attacks occurred in the direction of Luhansk. 87 pro-Russian militants and 42 units of military equipment were destroyed in the last 24 hours (including 12 tanks, 14 multiple rocket launchers and 16 armored vehicles).

February 11 – In Donetsk 6 people were killed and 8 wounded as a result of shelling at the bus station and entrance office of "Donetsk Metallurgical Plant".

February 11 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko spoke about a successful military operation at Debaltseve foothold: "Several successful operations were conducted yesterday at Debaltseve foothold. They allowed us to gain control over two municipalities and the contact line", – said Poroshenko.

February 11 – "People's Republic of Luhansk" and "People's Republic of Donetsk" demand that Ukraine stops the ATO and are requesting autonomy and new elections, – as stated in a protocol draft handed over on Tuesday night by the leaders of the terrorists to the contact group in Minsk.

February 11 – Russian Federal TV Station "Channel 5" has broadcast a story describing how quickly and easily Russian troops can enter European capitals and threatened the West with missile attacks. Show's authors vaguely disguised this information as campaign to hold "Victory Day parades" in the EU member-states capitals.

February 11 – Russia implemented a direct military intervention during the battle at the city of Debaltseve, – stated Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Commander of Allied Land Command (NATO).

February 11 – Russian Foreign Ministry believes that border control issues should be should negotiated upon with the militants, which, in its turn, doesn't provide a solution to the problem, – stated Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

February 11 – Government is ready to establish martial law, should there be esalation of the situation in the east. This was stated by President Petro Poroshenko during a government meeting. Poroshenko emphasized that it is precisely "from the results of the summit that it will depend if we will be successful in stopping the aggressor by diplomatic means, or if we will switch into a very different course." I and the government, and Parliament are ready to make a decision to impose martial law in the entire territory of Ukraine," he noted.

"In no way will I delay this decision, if the the irresponsible acts of the aggressor bring about a serious continued escalation of the conflict," he emphasized. "I am convinced that our country can protect itself and that every person will do whatever posssible in order to demonstrate that victory will be ours. However, I stress, that I am a president of peace, and thatn through army means, the situation in Donbas should not be decided," he added.

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Economist Edward Lucas Attacks Russia's RT and Sputnik for "manufacturing lies" and those working there as "freaks and propagandists"

Feature by BBC Monitoring on 9 February

Russian state media have hit back strongly at British journalist Edward Lucas after he criticized them at the recent Munich Security Conference and suggested that journalists working for them should be ostracized. One top TV presenter went as far as to brand Lucas a "village idiot".

At a panel discussion at the annual Munich Security Conference on 6 February, Lucas, a senior editor at The Economist and author of The New Cold War, accused the Kremlin's international media operations, RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and Sputnik (rebranded successor to the Voice of Russia) of "manufacturing lies".

He said the people working for them were "freaks and propagandists", who should be the target of a campaign of ostracism, according to records of the discussion published by RT and Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.[1]

"If anyone puts a CV on my desk and on that CV I see they worked for RT or Sputnik or one of these things, that CV is going into the bin," Lucas said. He added that people in the West were wrong to see working for the Kremlin's international media as a "first stage on the career ladder". "It's not, it's the last stage," he told the Munich conference.

"Journalistic Joe McCarthy"

Russian state media came back, all guns blazing, with Lucas even getting a whole slot to himself on state channel Rossiya 1's weekly current affairs news roundup Vesti Nedeli.[2]

Outspoken host Dmitriy Kiselev, who is also director-general of Sputnik's parent company Rossiya Segodnya (which confusingly translates as Russia Today), hurled a whole fistful of epithets at Lucas – "odious British journalist", "hysterical Londoner" and even "village idiot" – while rubbishing his analysis of Russian politics and accusing The Economist of practising censorship.

RT responded more primly, saying it was "absolutely outraged" by Lucas's "specious attacks", which, it said, were particularly "despicable" as several of its journalists were daily risking their lives to "report on stories nobody else dares to touch".[3]

Sputnik also had Lucas in its sights, describing him in one article as a "journalistic Joe McCarthy" – a reference to the US senator who instigated a witch-hunt against Communist sympathizers in the 1950s.[4]

Lucas himself appeared to revel in the backlash, responding to Kiselev in kind.

"Better than a Pulitzer prize? i get prime-time abuse from vile Kremlin mouthpiece Kiselov," he tweeted.[5]

He could also take comfort from the support of fellow Twitterati, who suggested he had got under RT's skin.

US journalist Michael Weiss observed that Lucas had "figured out RT hacks' Achilles heel", while Times columnist Oliver Kamm said he had "badly wounded them".[6][7]

Writer and Russia watcher Ben Judah also weighed in, saying Lucas had put the wind up RT. "Experts should refuse to appear on RT – or any other? disinformation channel", he added.[8]

"Misinformation"

RT and its supporters also entered the fray on Twitter.

One of its contributors, Robert Bridge, accused Lucas of being "scared to hear another side of the story", while the channel itself suggested his attack on its journalists may have been provoked by recent criticism of The Economist on its show In The Now.[9][10]

In The Now dismissed as "absurd" a claim by The Economist that Russian state TV "conceals" bad economic news from its viewers. It showed excerpts from top TV bulletins talking about the collapse of the rouble to prove the contrary. It also said that the story of the rouble's woes and the looming recession had been well covered in Russian newspapers. To suggest otherwise, it said, was to promote "misinformation".[11]

It called its analysis of The Economist's coverage a "tutorial on how to write a propaganda article".

But RT's criticism of The Economist was itself guilty of omission and distortion.

For example, it made no mention of the fact that on the day in mid December when the rouble tumbled by some 10 per cent, Rossiya 1 main news had ignored this story altogether.

Also, it illustrated its claim about the Russian press's economic coverage with screenshots not from leading newspapers but from news agencies and websites, one of them a little known business portal from the Volga republic of Tatarstan.

The panel discussion at the Munich conference, which also featured NATO commander and US general Philip Breedlove and Norwegian Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide, looked more broadly at the issue of hybrid warfare and the role played in it by different media organizations.

According to a report by Judy Dempsey on the Carnegie Europe website, the participants said that one of the reasons why RT and its ilk have been able to make such an impact is the cutbacks at top Western international media, such as the BBC World Service and the Voice of America.[12]

[1] http://rt.com/op-edge/230315-rt-responds-lucas-munich/

[2] http://vesti7.ru/news?id=45745

[3] See note 1

[4] http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150208/1017973545.html

[5] https://twitter.com/edwardlucas/status/564531479263600642

[6] https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/564468359048486912

[7] https://twitter.com/OliverKamm/status/564408994853572609

[8] https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/564541740863193091

[9] https://twitter.com/Robert_Bridge/status/564665181549391873

[10] https://twitter.com/INTHENOWRT/status/564758039371472896

[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5X3WYm_3U

[12] http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=58998

Source: BBC Monitoring research 9 Feb 15

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February 3 – "There are almost no printed media in Ukrainian and no official versions of regional and municipal media in Ukrainian in Crimea today. Only one Ukrainian television show is being broadcast out of four that had existed before. Internet websites in Ukrainian are being disabled for Crimean residents", – stated Valeriya Lutkovska, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

February 3 – ATO press center informs that after another Putin's "humanitarian aid convoy" has arrived in Ukraine, the number of attacks and their intensity has increased again, said ATO spokesman Olekdsandr Motuzyanyk. "After another convoy arrived from Russia, the number of attacks and their intensity has intensified significantly. That is to say that they [the militants and regular troops] basically received the ammunition they needed. Otherwise a question arises – where do the militants get so much ammunition from if they are able to continue attacks almost around the clock".

February 3 – At NATO headquarters they expect that in the near future Russian Federation will continue to absorb unrecognized territories that appeared as a result of conflicts involving Russia, – stated NATO official during a meeting with journalists (who asked not to be named).

February 3 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko plans to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the end of this week, – informed NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu.

February 3 – in NATO headquarters they say that they expect a noticeable deterioration of the situation during the time of the interaction with journalists a NATO high official who asked that his name not be divulged, reported from Brussels a correspondent of European Truth. "Russia is ready to support the conflict in Ukraine as long as there will not be a political solution which suits Moscow. AAnd in this is the root of the problem," stated the representative of the Alliance. "No one knows how long the conflict in Ukraine will last and how specifically will be resolved. However, there are all reasons to expect that the safety situatioon in eastern Ukraine will deteriorate. And the proof of this lies not only in the events of the last few days but also in earlier facts," he added. The co-speaker also mentioned that Russia is strengthening its activity in the conflict. "The possible deterioration of the safety situation is also supported by the increaseof Russian presence in eastern Ukraine and we have valid affirmations to assuredly state that the Russian army is acting on the side of the separatists," he emphasized.

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