In the summer of 2020, the factor of right-wing radical groups in Ukraine sharply escalated.
If you pay attention to the outbursts of aggression of “National Corpus“ in June and August, you can find one pattern. At certain times, radicals are allowed to use violence against dissidents and declare “safaris” against representatives of objectionable political parties, as if directed from above.
The peak of aggression of right-wing radicals was observed precisely in those days when the “Shary Party“ and “Opposition Platform – For Life“ increased their political activity and held legal street actions, and organisational events. This suggests that “National Corpus” fulfilled the political orders of its current curators to suppress dissent and intimidate opposition parties.
The actions of radicals show that organisations like “National Corpus” find the role of “death squads” and terrorist groups very attractive when it is generously paid. This means that today such right-wing groups have political patrons in the Ukrainian government who are interested in their services. These political curators are ready to maintain and cover for “National Corpus”, unofficially entrusting it with repressive functions: terrorising objectionable politicians and public figures, persecuting and punishing dissident citizens at their own discretion, and thus establish a “new order”…
Journalist Pavel Volkov (Zaporozhye) suffered for his beliefs under the Poroshenko regime, was a political prisoner, and was recognised as a prisoner of conscience. He was fully acquitted by the court. He was repeatedly harassed and pressured by right-wing radicals. After being released, he writes a lot about human rights issues.
Pavel Volkov commented on the current activity of right-wing radicals in Ukraine:
“It turned out that it was not under my will that I have been in the courts since the end of 2017. Firstly, for my own case. And since the autumn of 2018 — for a dozen more, and maybe more, cases of other people who are persecuted for political reasons. I can say for sure that at the moment when the prosecutor starts to have problems with the evidence base, right-wing radicals often appear in such trials. At my trial, the organisations ‘C14‘ and ‘National Corpus‘ appeared at the very end, when, according to them, the case became ‘dead weight’.
There was no physical impact, but they disrupted the sessions, publicly called for a lynching, insulted the lawyer and my relatives, and after the meeting they escorted me to the entrance. If it hadn’t been for the police being called, we don’t know how it would have ended. And this is not to mention the constant threats on social networks and in the form of emails sent to my mailbox.
By the way, all political prisoners had their ‘fans’ among the radicals. Against the journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, for example, Evgeny Karas from ‘C14’ went to work. Against political prisoners Mefedov and Dolzhenkov — Odessa nationalist and part-time opera singer (yep, really!) Todor Panovsky. The radicals came to the political journalist Vasily Muravitsky many times and exclusively as a team. They fought against the lawyer Andrey Gozhy right in the courtroom, doused people with Brilliant Green. But they went into the court, clearly not understanding what was happening. It was very funny when at the end of the session (the court extended Vasily’s around-the-clock house arrest, although the defence requested only night arrest) the nationalists shouted ‘shame!’ in the direction of the court. We even tried to explain that the court decided seemingly in their favour, but they didn’t understand…
Some youngsters, maybe high school students, were taken to the trial of political prisoner Dariya Mastikasheva. I don’t know what they agreed on, but they were as quiet as mice. So the enemy doesn’t always get it right.
After the election of Zelensky, as far as I saw with my own eyes, the judicial activity of the nazis subsided slightly. But this is an unusual year. Firstly, several of their people were detained. Secondly, suddenly, almost 7 years after the beginning of the fascist terror in Ukraine, quite large European politicians and human rights activists started to notice that something was wrong. And thirdly, of course, there is an election.
The Ukrainian nazis, without expecting it (and we, to be honest, did not expect it), found themselves in a stupid situation. Their effectiveness has fallen for two reasons.
1. Supporters of Anatoly Shary were not afraid to take to the streets.
2. A similar muscle unit, consisting of their own former brothers (some of them became disillusioned with the right-wing radical methods, others saw the light), was created in ‘Opposition Platform – For Life‘.”
Pavel Volkov believes that if at some point the nazis will be useless, i.e. they will not be able to terrorise citizens with impunity, and they will stop being funded — then they will either disappear or become ordinary organised criminal groups. But in the second case, they risk criminal liability.
“So now they are simply forced to go all-in, so that, even putting themselves at risk, they must prove their usefulness to the owner,” Pavel Volkov notes. “And, of course, they make money from electoral campaigns. For example, they spoil the billboards and tents of ‘Opposition Platform – For Life‘. Note that until recently, they beat up people with bats and threw grenades at the offices of opposition parties, but now they have suddenly switched to spraying paint on posters. Major crimes are expensive, it is impossible to pay for it for a long time, but minor hooliganism is easy. But now it is difficult to find those willing to stand near the campaigning tents of ‘Opposition Platform – For Life‘ — it’s just dangerous. However, the effectiveness of these tents is zero, so the money for hooliganism is spent, by and large, in vain.”
Aleksandr Aleksandrovsky
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