16 June 2014
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is only “partly legitimate,” said Communist Party Head Petro Symonenko, as reported by gazeta.ru on June 15. “He was elected by only a part of Ukraine,” he said. “As a result, the east and west are fighting, yet Poroshenko is standing on the sidelines, defending only Ukraine’s Western interests. Does that support peace and calm in Ukraine? No.”
The Party of Regions will participate in early parliamentary elections, said MP Mykhaylo Chechetov, who predicted it will be among the biggest factions and will “reset” government at the local level and in parliament. “If we will hold elections when military actions aren’t done in the east, we will create larger political division in society,” he told the 112 Ukrayina television network on June 15. “We won’t give residents of the east to select their candidates.”
Zenon Zawada: It looks bad for the Ukrainian president for the Communist leader to be making such ridiculous statements, repeating the Russian propaganda, without any consequences. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is currently investigating the illegal activities of the Communists, which could lead to their removal from parliament and the party’s liquidation altogether. Such measures, particularly the party’s dissolution altogether, need to be taken by the end of this month to remove a key domestic enemy from government.
Similar investigations and consequences must be considered for the Party of Regions, which has its fair share of saboteurs that are supporting the pro-Russian fighters. Allowing these leaders to go unpunished has the potential to be disastrous for the Poroshenko presidency and Ukraine’s prospects for stability. There are enough legal grounds to liquidate the Party of Regions, based on a well-documented history of vote fraud, voter intimidation and bribery, among many other crimes, including those committed during the EuroMaidan protest. In that event, many of its oligarchs and their underlings will likely launch other parties and join existing ones. Yet the symbolic nature of its liquidation would be important in sending a message to the public that such law-breaking won’t be tolerated again.