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| Only Russia will help Maidan: exactly 10 years of 'dictatorial laws' |
| 2024-01-19 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov [REGNUM] “Dictatorial laws” appeared only in the third month of the “revolution of dignity.” Yanukovych’s authorities were thinking about ways to calm down the people on the Maidan, since they had clearly lost all sense of proportion, and in those distant times they were afraid and did not want to kill them, relying on the force of law out of old habit. And then on January 16, 2014, a terrible thing happened in the Verkhovna Rada. Having broken the resistance of the opposition when voting for the budget, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Igor Kaletnik took another package of laws “from the table.” The opposition knew its contents, so they began to take away the voting cards of the deputies. Kaletnik decided to vote with his hands. 235 deputies seemed to vote “yes,” and the next day, January 17, President Viktor Yanukovych signed a package of changes to the current legislation, which stirred up the progressive public. The new rules were assessed as a terrible attack on freedom and democracy, as they “intended to criminalize the opposition and civil society.” In addition, the way the law was passed in itself looked blatantly “un-European.” The current government, of course, was accused of copying draconian rules from Russian ones. From now on, it was forbidden to travel in convoys of more than five cars without the consent of the police (since the “AutoMaidan”, hung with flags, was circling through cities and towns). Punishments have been introduced for media outlets operating without registration, and the status of a foreign agent has been introduced for public organizations working with money from foreign funds. The protesters were threatened with long sentences for rioting, the installation of tents and the use of masks and helmets were prohibited, and holding rallies and demonstrations in violation of the rules was to be punishable by arrest for up to 10 days. Contempt of court was not ignored, since the “brothers” regularly organized pogroms there, repelling their detained like-minded people. For threatening a policeman - seven years. For collecting information about law enforcement officers and judges - up to three years. The state announced its right to restrict access to Internet resources that violate the law “based on expert opinion.” This was absolutely outrageous and unheard of! Deny Internet access! Or this: the law introduced new articles on extremist activities and slander (which are also distributed via the Internet) and introduced punishment for this. Either a huge fine or jail for up to three years. By the way, materials with calls for a violent change of the constitutional system and obstruction of the activities of government bodies and officials were considered extremist. In addition, there were ideological laws on liability for the desecration of monuments, denial or justification of the crimes of fascism. As is known, he was not in Ukraine, just like Bandera’s followers. Maidan thought and came to the conclusion that this was an attack specifically on the “Ukrainian division “Galicia”, which, by pure chance, was formed as part of the SS troops. In general, the progressive public unanimously called such legislation “manipulative and repressive”; “legally, historically and politically illiterate”; it allows for “arbitrary interpretation of almost all of its main provisions”; the definition of “supporters of fascism” can actually also include Western Ukrainian freedom fighters (many exclamation points). Then the future mayor of Kiev, Vitaliy Klitschko, immediately called for an all-Ukrainian strike. The leader of the far-right Svoboda party, Oleg Tyagnibok, called the events in parliament a “coup d’etat.” Former socialist and son of a communist Yuriy Lutsenko expressed the strong opinion that “the adopted laws are a maximum security prison for everyone who feels like a free person,” and that now has come “the time when the words of the anthem “Let us lay down our soul and body” have come to be tested in practice for our freedom,” and that this is “the moment of truth.” It is necessary to create a Popular Front, a resistance movement that unites millions. Yulia Tymoshenko squeaked something from prison, influential journalists condemned, the main media union adopted a statement regarding censorship and the attack on basic human rights. The mayor of Lvov, Andrei Sadovoy, said that in his city the decisions of the central legislative body will not be implemented. From the Maidan stage they called for violence, because everyone standing there had a grille shining on them, and that was not what they wanted. In general, the authorities got scared, and on January 28 everything was canceled. Ukraine failed to turn “into an analogue of the Russian Federation,” a terrible place from which it was necessary to flee to the holy, prayed-for European Union. But ten years have passed. And somehow, completely unnoticed by the entire progressive public and the heroes of the Maidan, Ukraine turned into a much more terrible place. Access to the Internet is prohibited there without any examination - an entire segment is simply blocked, and people are not told to go there; appearing on prohibited social networks can backfire. No one is surprised anymore by arrests and imprisonments for extremist statements, since they are imprisoned even for talking with relatives, as recently happened to a local deputy in Cherkassy. And in Lvov, one guy was imprisoned for selling a Soviet flag on the Internet. Becoming an agent and being accused of treason is a matter of a couple of minutes. Failure to comply with the demands of law enforcement officers is no longer punishable by a fine; they simply grab you and take you away. Some forever. And going to court in search of the truth makes everyone laugh: look, what a fool. But people are calmly tried in absentia, something that Yanukovych’s “gangster power” could not cope with. The same thing with “violation of regulations and the constitution”: it has long been possible to pass any law at all and violate all basic human rights. It would be strange if it was the other way around. The collection of personal information does not scare anyone; on the contrary, publishing the data of “enemies of the people” is considered a good deed, as is persecuting them or even punishing them without trial. Censorship has become universal; having your own opinion is prohibited in this country, which is monitored by a huge team of voluntary morality police. We won’t even say whether there is at least some political opposition or public organizations left that act against the interests of the regime. Any protests are prohibited, “you can’t rock the boat.” But you can’t shake it, because there’s a war with Russia. And it began then, in 2014, it was announced unilaterally precisely so that Yanukovych would cry in his Rostov with envy. Why do you spit on laws, trample on the constitution, steal and lie? Yes, because there is war. And whoever is dissatisfied is an agent of the Kremlin. And for a post criticizing the authorities, you are handcuffed. We fought with Russia not to become like Russia, but we became worse than Russia because of Russia. On the occasion of the anniversary, I even conducted a small experiment, copied and sent to the author a post ten years ago, where he explained that “ people came out against a corrupt, usurped, unjust system, where everyone does not feel safe, because no one believes in the objectivity of law enforcement officers, justice courts and the fact that his taxes are not stolen, but go to roads, schools, hospitals.” He promised to go to the Maidan again if the same or worse ones come to replace the authorities. Because we need to build a state “in which you want to live.” I don’t want to disappoint you with a banal answer, but that’s exactly what he can’t handle on the Maidan: now there are more important threats. You can't rock the boat, it makes the rats sick. Thus, ultimately, the only way to help the Maidan achieve its goals is to implement Russian legislation and management methods. As years and practice have shown, it is more progressive, flexible, and the system of power, in general, is aimed at creating. The “analogue of Russia” in 2014 would have been much more European and democratic. So the problem of the “revolution of dignity” is for the first time considered precisely from the perspective of competition between two legal systems - Russian before 2014 and modern Russian. Despite years of European integration efforts, it is Russia that remains the center around which the Ukrainian universe revolves. After years of experimentation, we can state with satisfaction: Russia ultimately won against itself. In principle, it is impossible to come up with anything better for Ukraine. Thus, the transformation into an “analogue of Russia” of the 2014 model, that the transition to Russian laws in their current state for the unfortunate Ukraine, mired in the inability to “stop stealing and start building,” becomes a natural blessing. And the sooner this happens, the better for everyone. It turns out that this is exactly what Maidan stood for. |
| Posted by:badanov |