By Dmitri Menin.
It has long been known that revolutions are carried out by romantics, and their fruits harvested by cynics. But Ukraine has now put them all to shame with the unbelievable speed with which it has rushed from romanticism to cynicism. The final few dazed revolutionaries are still wandering across Maidan Square shouting «Down with thieves and oligarchs!» and «Long live the government of national confidence», while at the same time it is these same oligarchs who are confidently taking up the more substantial government posts, such as multimillionaire Arsen Avakov, for example, who has been appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, as well as getting entire regions to feed on, such as billionaires Ihor Kolomoyskyi in Dnepropetrovsk and Sergey Taruta in Donetsk. The other appointees may have fewer millions at the moment, but they will soon catch up. New changes are also afoot. The New York Times reports that the nomination of Vadim Novinsky, the owner of Smart Holding Company whose net worth is estimated to be USD 1.9 billion, for the post of Kiev’s representative to Crimea is on the cards.
There is a rumour that the author of this ‘forced’ staffing strategy is former prisoner Yulia Tymoshenko, who went to see the people on Maidan Square in a wheelchair, but who was able to stand and walk about in the American Embassy. It turns out that is the place where one can breathe the salubrious air of freedom. It is assumed that the oligarchs, who represent the country’s business elite, will be able to exert a controlling influence over workers in eastern Ukraine. Yuriy Lutsenko, an ally of the magically-cured maiden Yulia Tymoshenko, has said that the reason oligarch’s are being appointed is so that big business can be as involved as possible in protecting the country’s territorial integrity, which will not just make use of public resources, but all available private resources as well. Only now, something tells us that this plan is far from spontaneous and that this is exactly the reason why the turmoil and undertaking took place to begin with. And as far as which citizens are primarily going to be saved by these private and public resources, there is absolutely no doubt at all – the most worthy, which is to say the oligarchs themselves. In essence, the era of the complete triumph of the oligarchy in Ukraine has arrived. Masks are being thrown off even more quickly than any kind of decency allows. There is a terrible hurry before the people befuddled by the incense of the burning tyres finally see the light. By then, however, it may very well be too late.
Simon Jenkins, a journalist for The Guardian, writes: «Romantics sometimes refer to the «wisdom of crowds», but they ignore the capacity of totalitarians to manipulate the masses to their will. They forget the hysteria and cruelty of which programmed crowds are capable. Any upheaval can offer the hope of better times. But history is always a sceptic».
Despair is discernible in the words of one of those who took part in the events in Ukraine: «In any case, good intentions like these without any constructive suggestions to take and create a people’s council, popular control or a people’s government are going to be faced with the fact that foreigners are once again going to end up in these public offices.
«Because the trend of Ukrainian desperation lies in the fact that the vermin we for some reason keep electing to govern us do not come from outer space. They live among us! Which is why any recombination of elements that make up the current system of power, which is represented by a political circle of particularly active, deceitful and cynical vermin, is going to come to nothing».
Another disillusioned revolutionary believes that «Maidan is probably waiting for the next grandiose ‘flop’ – something like what happened in 2005. There is no ‘elite’ in Ukraine that would be able to replace the corrupt domestic bedlam. The ‘Donetsk clan’ has been moved aside, and the ‘liubi druzi’ (the ‘dear friends’ of Viktor Yushchenko) are returning. What’s more, they are clearly hungry for revenge and in the mood for it. These are the same ‘liubi druzi’ that successfully ‘carved’ and ‘sawed’ under Tymoshenko in the previous attempt. Except that while they came to power in 2005 under the slogan ‘the Orange Revolution’, now they are chomping at the bit under the rhetoric of Maidan. Tymoshenko was released after all the human fatalities, and she and Turchynov were immediately hoisted to the top of the power pyramid. What is that about? Why such an unprecedented honour? Who exactly are these Elders of Zion? Whilst averting their eyes, some deputies say that such figures exist. All the rest are a closely guarded secret».
But they are not being kept secret any more. Let us look at two of them now.
The new head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration is Israeli citizen Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a well-known Ukrainian businessman and head of the European Jewish Council. He is ranked the second richest person in Ukraine (2013) with a net worth of USD 3.645 billion. He is a member of various supervisory boards, the co-owner of PrivatBank, the Neftekhimik-Prykarpattya oil refinery, and the oil and gas extracting company Ukrnafta, the vice-president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, and, according to a number of political analysts, one of the most influential people in Ukraine. It was Kolomoyskyi who was always the financial sponsor of the ‘Yulia Tymoshenko’ political project. He lives in Switzerland. The fact that his PrivatBank was one of the first major lending institutions in the country to stop issuing money to the people because of the ‘Maidan troubles’ is evidence of how much of his own money Kolomoyskyi is willing to share with the people of Ukraine. In reality, he needs additional money himself to rectify affairs in his business empire. Much to the joy of Kiev’s new rulers, he has already registered his presence through his offensive remarks towards Russian president Vladimir Putin. Evidently there will be no point waiting for money, only insults.
Sergey Taruta has been appointed the governor of Donetsk region and is co-owner of the Industrial Union of Donbas Corporation, as well as president of FC Metalurh Donetsk. In February 2008, his net worth was USD 2.65 billion and Taruta ranked 8th in the Top-130 Richest Ukrainians. After the global financial crisis, however, his net worth fell dramatically to approximately USD 750 million. He is urgently in need of fresh infusions to restore his former greatness and save his assets. Governing a region as affluent as Donetsk will give him a good chance to do this, where he will be busy collecting objects of ‘high antiquity’. For this reason, he has spent a long time getting closer to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko.
Looking at these men, and knowing that it is these men who are standing behind the regime’s main figures, you start to wonder why Turchynov and Yatsenyuk are referring to themselves as a «kamikaze government» quite so insistently, and giving themselves a political life of 3-4 months. Why had it been necessary to rush to power quite so fiercely? Acting President Alexander Turchynov says that the provisional government is doomed because it will have to implement unpopular decisions. «Not those promised by the populists, but those that are needed to save Ukraine from default and restore the faith of creditors and investors. It will be criticised and vilified, but it must fulfil its duties and burn for the sake of Ukraine». Once again there is the question of whether it is for the sake of Ukraine or for the sake of its most worthy sons like Kolomoyskyi, Taruta and others. Yatsenyuk has already announced the unconditional acceptance of all IMF conditions, which will have a serious impact on the further deterioration of life for the Ukrainian people. But then on the other hand, fresh money will be received to save big business, which will then move along the already familiar route to offshore accounts and precious safety deposit boxes that will be hidden much more securely than those of the simpleton Yanukovych. It seems that the ‘kamikaze’ of Turchynov and Yatsenyuk is not going to involve anything except cutting out coupons to transfer power to the oligarchs.
And as far as Maidan’s «Circle of National Trust» is concerned, do they really believe in this fairytale about the fat cats being saviours of the homeland? After until, until fairly recently its leaders had been saying that Ukraine’s new government of national confidence would be closed to anyone on the list of the 100 richest people in Ukraine. Well what are they keeping quiet for?
They, for example, announced that they were going to convene a national popular assembly on Maidan Square on 2 March to listen to a report on the first results of the new government’s work. «And let Turchynov, Yatsenyuk, Tyahnybok, Klitschko and Avakov just try not to come!» it said in a statement on their social network site. People did actually gather on the square. But what did they talk about? About deflecting the threat of Russian ‘aggression’, both invented and over-exaggerated, seemingly so that no kind of report could be given. In truth, nobody has stuttered anything at all about the results of the new government’s work. And maybe nobody is going to ask, either. So what did the young people from the «Heavenly Hundred» and Berkut actually die for?
