"Everyone threw us"

The protest in Kyiv is fading. Now the city is busy searching for guilty

Protest participants scold the opposition leaders and reflect on why it was beneficial to “merge” the protest, and the authorities began to judge the most active participants in the Euromaidan. The Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov, who has not resigned, is not embarrassed to directly threaten the opposition with repression

In bewilderment

The atmosphere on the morning of December 4 on the Square Square in Kyiv can be described in two words: confusion and bewilderment. While the opposition leaders are consulting with the ambassadors of foreign states and are negotiating among themselves, ordinary protesters reflect on the topic why the protest, in general, a hat, and instead of hundreds or at least tens of thousands of people, from only three to five thousand people now.

“I think two factors played a role: firstly, the opposition refuses to do anything, and this is already bored with many. People were ready to do anything: at least picket, at least capture buildings, at least arrange a Mahach with a golden eagle. But no one told us what to do and why. Disappointment, of course, is very serious, ”says an 29 -year -old entrepreneur from Lviv Sergey. He, along with three friends, arrived in Kyiv on Sunday. The guys stand on the Maidan during the day, and spend the night and warm up in a car that was parked two quarters from the main square of the country. They say that they are ready to go home after the weekend: “If on Saturday and Sunday we are not supported by a hundred thousand Kyivans, and the opposition will not find what to do with it, then our victims will be in vain here. Let's go to families and - to work. ”

But few are ready to wait until the weekend. “I personally have been packing today. Everyone threw us: the authorities, and Klitschko, and Yatsenyuk. No one is ready to do anything, to answer for anything. They simply garmed in our face, ”says 44 -year -old plumber from Chernivtsi Nikolai.

No significant events in Kyiv on Wednesday really happen. In the morning, several thousand protesters tried to block the Cabinet of Ministers, but the ministers spent the working day inside the administrative meeting without problems. The opposition promises to block the rostrum of the parliament, but the regional deputies say that, if necessary, they are ready to hold an exit meeting.

The employees of the Kyiv city administration went to work. Employees of the city hall simply parted in their offices, despite the fact that the first floor of the room was still “occupied” by protesters who turned him into something between the hostel (without beds, truth) and the dining room. The acting mayor of Kyiv, a member of the Party of Regions, Alexander Popov, even promised to free the city hall from the protesters without a power option. And he will probably fulfill this promise: a few more days will pass, and the demonstrators will leave there themselves.

Under the walls of the Verkhovna Rada, supporters of the party in power were located. They, following the example of supporters of European integration, organized a small tent town here, drink tea, listen from the scene of musicians and performances of people's deputies. Along the way, the money is earned: each participant in this rally (and there are only about a thousand) will earn at least 200 UAH (800 rubles) per day.

No one is particularly engaged in the protesting opposition: the leaders of the factions are consulted on further actions with the ambassadors of foreign states. Therefore, people are organized themselves: students of the University of Shevchenko and some others have already begun to picket the Ministry of Education. Last night it became known that the Prosecutor General now finds out which of the students took part in rallies on the Maidan. Students are afraid that they will begin to take them for interrogations and expel from universities.

Counterattack

Meanwhile, the faded protest began to untie the hands of power. The Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov, who retained the post of Prime Minister, has promised to conduct not only personnel permutations in the government, but also repressions to the opposition. “I want to say to people: your leaders push you to a crime. They will try to hide behind the deputy inviolability. And you have no one to hide, ”Azarov openly warned. And he emphasized that "the reason for street protests has been exhausted."

Moreover, Azarov began to threaten the termination of budget financing to those Western regions of Ukraine, whose leadership called people to boycotts and strikes.

“I especially draw the attention of those individual local communities in the west of the country - I emphasize, single examples - when the local authorities suspended work to participate in protests,” the prime minister addressed the officials there. “Such immorality and irresponsibility of local officials can lead to the fact that the funds will be allocated at the central level, but at the local level they, due to the non -working local authorities, simply will not reach the recipients,” the Prime Minister threatened.

The court has already arrested nine participants in the mass riots near the presidential administration on December 1 - all of them were detained for at least two months, everyone threatens from five to eight years in prison. Along the way, the police began to call for interrogations of the participants of the Euromaidan: the numbers of cars that block traffic in the center of Kyiv on Sunday, law enforcement officers carefully rewrote the day before.

All protests today are afraid that repressions will begin against them, and the opposition leaders will simply “forget” about them. There are already precedents: at the first court hearings that took place over the participants in protests, there were simply no people's deputies from the opposition. Although they called for the ambassadors of foreign states to go there.

Winner or loser?

Why did the opposition, which, according to many participants in the Euromaidan, received a “carte blanche” from the people for decisive actions, missed a real chance to compete for power?

The President of the Ukrainian Analytical Center Alexander Okhrimenko sees the reason that "the same oligarchs finance the opposition and power." According to him, representatives of large business wanted to achieve personnel permutations in the government in order to put "their people there."

“As soon as it became clear that this could not be done legally, they began to“ merge ”the Maidan,” the expert says. And he adds: “He (the Maidan) they no longer need, and keep it before the president’s election is very expensive.”

According to Okhrimenko, the “small group of marginalists” will stand on the Maidan for a long time, but no one has left for the revolution. Moreover, in Kyiv, according to the expert, the opinions are increasingly sounding that Yanukovych’s chances of the re -election in 2015 have only grown up: “The second time this opposition simply will not collect the same Maidan, people simply lost confidence in it,” the analyst says.

But the political observer of the LIGA.NET portal Sergey Vysotsky does not believe that the opposition deliberately “leaked” the protest:

“Yanukovych only understands the language of power, he is not ready to compromise with the people. Under these conditions, it was necessary either to begin full -fledged military operations, which would have entailed victims, or stand in the square with peaceful protest, negotiating with the West and power. ”

“The opposition is not a group of rebellious colonels. They are not ready to take responsibility for the power escalation of the conflict, and in general I don’t know how to organize this violence correctly, ”the expert explains. And he adds:“ The mass peaceful protest itself is already exhausting power and distracts it from the main functions. ”

The analyst warns: "If Yanukovych retains the fullness of power, then the repression is inevitable." However, he is not inclined to believe that "after such a mess (president) you can go out strengthening." “No one will sponsor the power of Yanukovych and the procedure for strengthening the power vertical for repression. Yanukovych will leave. If not now, then in 2015, ”the expert is convinced.

Experts are not taken to predict the terms of the new Maidan. But it is impossible to guarantee the non -resuscitation of mass protest in the future, Vysotsky emphasizes: “Yanukovych has so discredited himself to the international community that the elites most likely will rely on another candidate by 2015.”