Chris Ash
Kapten Gars
Information från östra delen av landet.
"I am writing in response to the international press coverage of the recent
events in Ukraine, more specifically the information about East Ukraie
and especially my 1.5 mln city, Kharkov, as I believe that today there are
no reporters writing from here.
Since last week we are having a revolution here directed against corrupted
Ukrainian government which had severely distorted the process and the
results of presidential elections. We are grateful to the US and UK
governments for decision not to recognize official results. This is a huge
contrast to the position of France and Italy, which seem to be blind about
existence of Ukraine at all. I feel that common EU position will never be
fully in favor of real freeedom because they need Russian gas. Now the
true background of our trouble is seen - Russia tries to establish its
puppet
"government" in the East Ukraine (like it did earlier in parts of Georgia
and
Moldova), thanks to the presense of strong local barons that want to keep
in power. Then we here in Kharkov will be having very hard time, for God
knows how long.
The sitaution is depicted in the Western press correctly and develops
dangerously. In Kiev, the capital, there are from 0.5 to 1 mln protesters
against the massive fraud demanding now that Kuchma, President,
fires his heir and Putin's protege,Yanukovich from the post of PM and
new voting is fixed for 12/12 under EU supervision. Army, police and
security keep formally neutral. It is believed and the proofs are seen
that a special unit of security troops from Moscow is guarding Kuchma,
as more trusted than any Ukrainian troops.
Last Friday a phony conference of various pro-Yanukovich deputies of
minor levels (only 30 MPs) gathered in Luhansk Region, east of Kharkov
and declared that they will be seeking an autonomy. Yanukovich attended
it, as well as an ardent Russophil Luzhkov, Major of Moscow. It was
stressed that Kiev is over 400 km from this area and Russian border
is only 40 km. It was mentioned that they could make a capital of this
puppet 'autonomy' in Kharkov.
However, the latter point is not so obvious as they'd like to make. My
city is really a key to the East Ukraine. Three days ago a governor of the
Kharkov Region, appointed by Kuchma, declared his closing of opposition
TV channel, switched police to his command, appealed for autonomy, etc.
However, the next day our elected Major called a session of the city
council that nullified the governor's move and declared it illegal. We still
have TV and police is peaceful. City council had also filed a case against
the governor to the city procecutor for separatism. Every day we have
an 'orange' rally in the city center. Last Monday just when the frauded
election resilts were announced we had 80 000 in the street including me,
my colleagues, friends, students and businessmen.
For Kharkov this is very large number, and this is the largest rally in the
whole East Ukraine. Thus, do not believe when reading that all E. Ukraine
is pro-Yanukovich - this is not true. According to observers, Kharkov city
voted up to 50% for reformist Yuschenko although really terrible scale
of fraud is unknown. Kharkov boasts its main 200-years-old university
and 24 other universities, so it is hard to persuade people to vote for a
criminal turned politician (Yanukovich was jailed twice in his youth for
street robbery and for beating a man). After the first round, several city
police officers told a UK journalist (The Independent) that they saw a room
in a small town nearby where as many as 0.5 mln ballots pre-filled in for
Yanukovich were kept before voting. This, as many other huge violations,
was not considered by any court as the courts are controlled by the
government.
There is no doubt that the same was done at the second round. Everybody
knows about the fraud. Therefore we shall be fighting against any phony
'autonomy'. Fortunately we have a brave Major. However, the Russian
border is really 50 km away....
In fact, the same had been done once long ago. In Dec. 1917 Lenin
issued ultimatum to the Kiev government that was not responded. Then
a detachment of Red Guards came to Kharkov from Moscow and seized
power with the aid of local communists. Then they called a phony 'congress'
of deputies (some 20 out of some 500 of Ukrainian deputies), which
declared itself a supreme authority and asked Moscow for miltary
intervention - already started. I hope that 85 years that have passed have
really changed something in the people hearts...
However even more important is a real international support - if only the
EU and US can really see that Putin is behind the scene, and he will be
really punished for what he is doing."
"I am writing in response to the international press coverage of the recent
events in Ukraine, more specifically the information about East Ukraie
and especially my 1.5 mln city, Kharkov, as I believe that today there are
no reporters writing from here.
Since last week we are having a revolution here directed against corrupted
Ukrainian government which had severely distorted the process and the
results of presidential elections. We are grateful to the US and UK
governments for decision not to recognize official results. This is a huge
contrast to the position of France and Italy, which seem to be blind about
existence of Ukraine at all. I feel that common EU position will never be
fully in favor of real freeedom because they need Russian gas. Now the
true background of our trouble is seen - Russia tries to establish its
puppet
"government" in the East Ukraine (like it did earlier in parts of Georgia
and
Moldova), thanks to the presense of strong local barons that want to keep
in power. Then we here in Kharkov will be having very hard time, for God
knows how long.
The sitaution is depicted in the Western press correctly and develops
dangerously. In Kiev, the capital, there are from 0.5 to 1 mln protesters
against the massive fraud demanding now that Kuchma, President,
fires his heir and Putin's protege,Yanukovich from the post of PM and
new voting is fixed for 12/12 under EU supervision. Army, police and
security keep formally neutral. It is believed and the proofs are seen
that a special unit of security troops from Moscow is guarding Kuchma,
as more trusted than any Ukrainian troops.
Last Friday a phony conference of various pro-Yanukovich deputies of
minor levels (only 30 MPs) gathered in Luhansk Region, east of Kharkov
and declared that they will be seeking an autonomy. Yanukovich attended
it, as well as an ardent Russophil Luzhkov, Major of Moscow. It was
stressed that Kiev is over 400 km from this area and Russian border
is only 40 km. It was mentioned that they could make a capital of this
puppet 'autonomy' in Kharkov.
However, the latter point is not so obvious as they'd like to make. My
city is really a key to the East Ukraine. Three days ago a governor of the
Kharkov Region, appointed by Kuchma, declared his closing of opposition
TV channel, switched police to his command, appealed for autonomy, etc.
However, the next day our elected Major called a session of the city
council that nullified the governor's move and declared it illegal. We still
have TV and police is peaceful. City council had also filed a case against
the governor to the city procecutor for separatism. Every day we have
an 'orange' rally in the city center. Last Monday just when the frauded
election resilts were announced we had 80 000 in the street including me,
my colleagues, friends, students and businessmen.
For Kharkov this is very large number, and this is the largest rally in the
whole East Ukraine. Thus, do not believe when reading that all E. Ukraine
is pro-Yanukovich - this is not true. According to observers, Kharkov city
voted up to 50% for reformist Yuschenko although really terrible scale
of fraud is unknown. Kharkov boasts its main 200-years-old university
and 24 other universities, so it is hard to persuade people to vote for a
criminal turned politician (Yanukovich was jailed twice in his youth for
street robbery and for beating a man). After the first round, several city
police officers told a UK journalist (The Independent) that they saw a room
in a small town nearby where as many as 0.5 mln ballots pre-filled in for
Yanukovich were kept before voting. This, as many other huge violations,
was not considered by any court as the courts are controlled by the
government.
There is no doubt that the same was done at the second round. Everybody
knows about the fraud. Therefore we shall be fighting against any phony
'autonomy'. Fortunately we have a brave Major. However, the Russian
border is really 50 km away....
In fact, the same had been done once long ago. In Dec. 1917 Lenin
issued ultimatum to the Kiev government that was not responded. Then
a detachment of Red Guards came to Kharkov from Moscow and seized
power with the aid of local communists. Then they called a phony 'congress'
of deputies (some 20 out of some 500 of Ukrainian deputies), which
declared itself a supreme authority and asked Moscow for miltary
intervention - already started. I hope that 85 years that have passed have
really changed something in the people hearts...
However even more important is a real international support - if only the
EU and US can really see that Putin is behind the scene, and he will be
really punished for what he is doing."
