Living on the edge of Ukrainian Civil War - Election Day in Kharkov
By now, the elections to Supreme Rada, Ukraine's national legislature, should be wrapped up. There's little doubt that the "Poroshenko Bloc" - made up of the moderate(ish) right-of-center party led by current President Petr Poroshneko and more nationalist, right-leaning UDAR party - will get the majority.
It's hard for anyone to be happy with the election has been unfolding. The sections of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasti occupied by pro-Russian forces aren't participating (and even if they were - fighting is still going on, which, to put it very mildly, is less than ideal). There are reports of MP candidates being attacked, election officials being attacked, attacks on polling stations (especially near the war-torn areas). And reading the coverage, it's hard not to wonder if, eight months later, Maidan protests were for nothing.
Election official prepares a polling place (via ITAR-TASS/Gazeta.ru)
Gazeta.ru did a piece on how elections are playing out in Kharkov. As I've written before in this LJ, the eastern Ukrainian city has been a major flashpoint for the conflict since the Maidan protests began. After the regime change, it saw significant protests and clashes between two sides. While the pro-Russian forces haven't been able to take it over, the city is still fairly close to the war zone.
Politically, the city used to be a stronghold of the Party of Regions, a more pro-Russian party was led by former president Victor Yanunkovich before he fled the country. The party host its clout in much of Ukraine - but according the article, it looks like the same MPs are going to be returning to Rada, just with the party labels crossed out.
After the winter revolution in Kiev and the armed conflict in Dombass, it was expected that politicians on the ballot would express new goals and ideas that reflected the popular slogans about the rebirth of society. But, in practice, the campaigns came down to blatant food distribution, massive television advertising campaign and fairly primitive smears.
[...]
Even though, during the winter and spring, Kharkov supported Euromaidan fairly actively, and a state of Lenin at the central square was demolished not too long ago, the voters didn't get viable candidates from the leading political forces that support the new government.
In the end, by sheer inertia, the votes would go to the previous MPs people already know.
The Maidan activists that spoke to Gazeta.ru are convinced that the government wrote the region off - and are pretty disappointed with the way the candidates and the parties they would be inclined to support conducted themselves.
"No new names, no new technologies," one activist said under the condition of anonymity. "Candidates from the [forces supporting democracy] nominated 3-4 people per electoral district, and they couldn't work agree and join forces. Provocations of some democratic candidates against others is rampant. As the result, we'll get old Regionals representing Kharkov in the parliament, ones who now recolored themselves and will continue to rule the country, and they won't even go through lustration."
A like-minded activists argues that disillusionment grows within Euromaidan itself.
"We expected real changed, but that didn't happen," he said. "The bureaucrats that have been there since Yanukovich's times are still in power, and nobody wants to fire them. The economy is getting closer to collapse, there's war in the nearby oblasti, Kharkov is flooded with refugees that no one takes care of except volunteers and sympathetic citizens. What's more, the expected ease of the customs control with Europe didn't happen - even Poland toughened the rules on applying for Schengen visas."
According to the article, many activists are thinking about moving, since it doesn't look like fighting in Dombass is going to die down. At the same time, pro-Russians activists left the country altogether, and many of the ones that remain are under arrest, awaiting trials that may not be entirely fair.
At the same time, there is looming threat of the Ukraine's ever deteriorating economy. The value of grivna, the country's currency, relative to the dollar isn't exactly secure, and everybody is terrified of what would happen to that value after the election, to say nothing of the next few months. Small household appliances and computers are flying off the shelves, while no one is buying more expensive devices and furniture.
"We're decreasing warehouse inventory - there's no profit in buying more, since the value [of currency] keeps dancing back and forth," said Nikolay, owner of a large mobile device store. "We'd wind up buying them for more than we can sell them. And besides, we don't know what even happens tomorrow - the current government couldn't care less about business owners."
"I don't want to [accumulate inventory] and generally try my best to be as mobile as possible, so so that if there's any danger, I can close up and leave."
There is also the unexpected consequences of the ever-growing number of refugees. Their presence caused apartment prices to shoot up dramatically, especially for small apartments. And because they are desperate enough to work for three times less than what the locals would accept, the labor market pretty much sucks right now for native Kharkovians.
It doesn't help that the city is awash with rumors - something that intensified in the run-up to the election day.
The worries are heightened by the rumors spread through social networks and forums - rumors of bloody provocations on the Election Day. After the shootings at the military recruiting stations, explosions at the railroads and arrests that Ukrainian Security Service started to make in the city, the people are trying their best to limit their movements in the city after dark, avoid potentially controversial conversations on the streets and on public transportation
"I've lived in Kharkov for over 30 years, ever since my parents brought me here when I was ten," Svetlana Grigor'yevna, who lives at Saltovka, said with alarm. "It seems like, formally, everything is good: the stores have everything, pharmacies and hospitals are working, they finally started to sort of turn on the heating.
But then you start reading things online and listening to your neighbors' conversations, and you want to shut yourself and your kids inside the house and never come out. Just today, there was rumor that [Kharkov Mayor Gennadiy Kernes] died. I'm sure it's a fake, but imagine what would happen in the city if, God forbid, it's true."
People are worried about the war continuing. People are worried about draft, and whether it will effect the kids. And there's the ever-present worry about what happen if the buildings won't get heated during the winter. A lot of the people in the city are old enough to remember what happened when heat getting turned off in the dead of winter was routine.
As someone who live through it, I can tell you that it inspires visceral terror. Even here in Chicago.
With all this in mind, I can understand why people of Kharkov might not have much faith that this election will make any difference at all.
26.10.2014, 09:57
Харьков голосует от страха
С началом протестов на востоке Украины Харьков был на острие событий: организаторы «Русской весны», очевидно, рассчитывали сделать его своим третьим форпостом наряду с Донецком и Луганском. ...
http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2014/10/26_a_6276777.shtml
It's hard for anyone to be happy with the election has been unfolding. The sections of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasti occupied by pro-Russian forces aren't participating (and even if they were - fighting is still going on, which, to put it very mildly, is less than ideal). There are reports of MP candidates being attacked, election officials being attacked, attacks on polling stations (especially near the war-torn areas). And reading the coverage, it's hard not to wonder if, eight months later, Maidan protests were for nothing.
Election official prepares a polling place (via ITAR-TASS/Gazeta.ru)
Gazeta.ru did a piece on how elections are playing out in Kharkov. As I've written before in this LJ, the eastern Ukrainian city has been a major flashpoint for the conflict since the Maidan protests began. After the regime change, it saw significant protests and clashes between two sides. While the pro-Russian forces haven't been able to take it over, the city is still fairly close to the war zone.
Politically, the city used to be a stronghold of the Party of Regions, a more pro-Russian party was led by former president Victor Yanunkovich before he fled the country. The party host its clout in much of Ukraine - but according the article, it looks like the same MPs are going to be returning to Rada, just with the party labels crossed out.
After the winter revolution in Kiev and the armed conflict in Dombass, it was expected that politicians on the ballot would express new goals and ideas that reflected the popular slogans about the rebirth of society. But, in practice, the campaigns came down to blatant food distribution, massive television advertising campaign and fairly primitive smears.
[...]
Even though, during the winter and spring, Kharkov supported Euromaidan fairly actively, and a state of Lenin at the central square was demolished not too long ago, the voters didn't get viable candidates from the leading political forces that support the new government.
In the end, by sheer inertia, the votes would go to the previous MPs people already know.
The Maidan activists that spoke to Gazeta.ru are convinced that the government wrote the region off - and are pretty disappointed with the way the candidates and the parties they would be inclined to support conducted themselves.
"No new names, no new technologies," one activist said under the condition of anonymity. "Candidates from the [forces supporting democracy] nominated 3-4 people per electoral district, and they couldn't work agree and join forces. Provocations of some democratic candidates against others is rampant. As the result, we'll get old Regionals representing Kharkov in the parliament, ones who now recolored themselves and will continue to rule the country, and they won't even go through lustration."
A like-minded activists argues that disillusionment grows within Euromaidan itself.
"We expected real changed, but that didn't happen," he said. "The bureaucrats that have been there since Yanukovich's times are still in power, and nobody wants to fire them. The economy is getting closer to collapse, there's war in the nearby oblasti, Kharkov is flooded with refugees that no one takes care of except volunteers and sympathetic citizens. What's more, the expected ease of the customs control with Europe didn't happen - even Poland toughened the rules on applying for Schengen visas."
According to the article, many activists are thinking about moving, since it doesn't look like fighting in Dombass is going to die down. At the same time, pro-Russians activists left the country altogether, and many of the ones that remain are under arrest, awaiting trials that may not be entirely fair.
At the same time, there is looming threat of the Ukraine's ever deteriorating economy. The value of grivna, the country's currency, relative to the dollar isn't exactly secure, and everybody is terrified of what would happen to that value after the election, to say nothing of the next few months. Small household appliances and computers are flying off the shelves, while no one is buying more expensive devices and furniture.
"We're decreasing warehouse inventory - there's no profit in buying more, since the value [of currency] keeps dancing back and forth," said Nikolay, owner of a large mobile device store. "We'd wind up buying them for more than we can sell them. And besides, we don't know what even happens tomorrow - the current government couldn't care less about business owners."
"I don't want to [accumulate inventory] and generally try my best to be as mobile as possible, so so that if there's any danger, I can close up and leave."
There is also the unexpected consequences of the ever-growing number of refugees. Their presence caused apartment prices to shoot up dramatically, especially for small apartments. And because they are desperate enough to work for three times less than what the locals would accept, the labor market pretty much sucks right now for native Kharkovians.
It doesn't help that the city is awash with rumors - something that intensified in the run-up to the election day.
The worries are heightened by the rumors spread through social networks and forums - rumors of bloody provocations on the Election Day. After the shootings at the military recruiting stations, explosions at the railroads and arrests that Ukrainian Security Service started to make in the city, the people are trying their best to limit their movements in the city after dark, avoid potentially controversial conversations on the streets and on public transportation
"I've lived in Kharkov for over 30 years, ever since my parents brought me here when I was ten," Svetlana Grigor'yevna, who lives at Saltovka, said with alarm. "It seems like, formally, everything is good: the stores have everything, pharmacies and hospitals are working, they finally started to sort of turn on the heating.
But then you start reading things online and listening to your neighbors' conversations, and you want to shut yourself and your kids inside the house and never come out. Just today, there was rumor that [Kharkov Mayor Gennadiy Kernes] died. I'm sure it's a fake, but imagine what would happen in the city if, God forbid, it's true."
People are worried about the war continuing. People are worried about draft, and whether it will effect the kids. And there's the ever-present worry about what happen if the buildings won't get heated during the winter. A lot of the people in the city are old enough to remember what happened when heat getting turned off in the dead of winter was routine.
As someone who live through it, I can tell you that it inspires visceral terror. Even here in Chicago.
With all this in mind, I can understand why people of Kharkov might not have much faith that this election will make any difference at all.
26.10.2014, 09:57
Харьков голосует от страха
С началом протестов на востоке Украины Харьков был на острие событий: организаторы «Русской весны», очевидно, рассчитывали сделать его своим третьим форпостом наряду с Донецком и Луганском. ...
http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2014/10/26_a_6276777.shtml