2012 Ukraine’s Anti-Heroes

By Myron Haluk

The past year has been eventful for the criminal-oligarchic syndicate currently ruling Ukraine and its members.

There of course was the suicidal pro-Russian language law authored by Vadym Kolesnichenko and Serhiy Kivalov from the Party of Regions. Kivalov was the Head of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission in 2004 and oversaw the fraudulent presidential elections that year between Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych and never spent one day in jail for his egregious role. Indeed, he went on to head the Verkhovna Rada’s judiciary committee and was awarded the Order of Friendship from Putin’s Russia in 2009. And then there is Kolesnichenko - chief Ukrainophobe and recipient in 2008 of the Order of Friendship from Russia. On live Ukrainian national television Kolesnichenko offered to drop his pants in front of the country and expose himself to a member of Ukraine’s democratic opposition. On national TV!? If the Russian Secret Services, the FSB, and President of Russia Vladimir Putin needed and need two agents of influence, then Kolesnichenko and Kivalov are their men.

One cannot make an anti-hero list without mentioning the odious personage of Viktor Medvedchuk who christened the Lubyanka Prison-loving Chekist Putin the Godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter. What better role model could a young innocent child have than a corrupt, autocratic KGB sub-colonel who sends abroad young Russian girls like Anna Chapman to spy and sleep around with old men in the West, and then has the same Anna Chapman become a Russian role model and leader in Putin’s party youth wing “Molodaya Gvardiya”. Medvedchuk now interests himself in propagating the idea of Ukraine joining Russia in a Eurasian Union and hopes to have a national referendum on the idea.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov cannot speak Ukrainian without notes and, that, atrociously. He claims to have studied the Ukrainian language for 20 years, but many third-generation Ukrainians in Canada make a greater effort to learn Ukrainian than Azarov which shows you all one needs to know about Azarov’s dedication to the Ukrainian nation as opposed to his dedication to being the Donetsk sovok agreeable to the various oligarchic clans under President Yanukovych’s criminal regime. Then again, these oligarchic clans (Akhmetov, Firtash, etc.) have grown increasingly jealous of the “family” of Mafia Don Yanukovych taking Ukraine’s assets for itself, specifically Yanukovych’s dentist son Oleksander who has to be the richest dentist in the history of mankind – no small achievement.

For Ukraine’s recent parliamentary elections, the militia Berkut deserves mention as well as the skin-headed sports fanatics for hire who suddenly gained official accreditation as journalists at voting stations to bully innocent people.

Yanukovych’s and his Party of Regions’ mouthpieces are Yuri Miroshnichenko, Volodymyr Oliy-nyk, and Vladislav Lukianov. Miroshnichenko has perfected the look of concern and earnestness for the common Ukrainian as he speaks on behalf of Yanukovych. Nature perhaps did not look too kindly on his efforts recently when a fly flew into his mouth as he was speaking on 5-yi Kanal defending the President. However, Lukianov is the funniest. He will venture onto the airwaves and play a man unjustly persecuted whenever he is interrupted in defending the corrupt Party of Regions. On perhaps Ukraine’s best talk show, Siohodni pro Holovne, he made an Academy-award worthy performance in drama as he spoke vigorously in Russian about the benefits of a Customs Union with “Putinstan”. Then, when the host changed the subject to the recent American refusal to grant a visa to Rinat Kuzmin, Deputy Prosecutor General responsible for the Yulia Tymoshenko case, Lukianov suddenly started speaking fluent Ukrainian with his face turning pale.

This is the one language the Regions thugs understand – visa refusals and asset freezes. They all may talk about Ukraine moving closer to the Kremlin, but they all vacation in the West, send their kids to school in the West and are terrified of having the West freeze them out. Yanukovych, the chief thug, cares not one bit about the common Ukrainian citizen but sees the country merely as a vehicle for himself and his family to enrich themselves. However, he also does not want to have the Ukrainian government become completely subservient to Putin in a Eurasian Union because Chekists, just like thugs, cannot be trusted.

Yanukovych personally shows his “concern” for the Ukrainian people by feasting royally at the public trough and splurging millions on his mansions in Ukraine such as Mezhyhiria with its gold-gilded rooms, helicopter landing pads, golf courses, yacht club, and zoo with exotic animals like kangaroos, among others. While the majority of Ukrainians attempt to eke out an existence, Yanukovych apparently has a set of anti-aircraft missiles erected by his property. What for? Is he expecting an invasion of his mansion?

If Canada’s Prime Minister suddenly started building mansions for personal use in the millions of dollars while in office, he would be hounded out with pitchforks. Corruption and “khabari” bribes will never cease to be a problem as long the current President of Ukraine practises corruption on such an enormous scale. Let us hope in the New Year, Ukraine’s anti-heroes vanish from power.