In fact, for any normal person, moral guidelines and other life markers have long been defined, and at various levels of development: "This is dog poop. You can't touch poop"; "Thou shalt not kill"; "Thou shalt not steal"; and so on. The results are clear. Let's say there was a man—an artist, a writer, an orator, a builder of highways—his name was Hitler. Really, a name is enough; we don't need to talk about his early watercolors anymore?
But then why are they declaring Oleksandr Suprunenko's "victory" in Kyiv's 216th electoral district? Isn't the mere name of the "winner" enough?
Chernovetsky's people - from bandits to comrades
(Read more about it in the article Leonid Chernovetsky: How "Lenya Kosmos" robbed Kyiv and moved to Georgia)
"We can only guess what other levers of administrative influence Chernovetsky's gang will use to continue plundering the city," declared the Klitschko Bloc, not yet in UDAR, during the 2008 snap mayoral elections. https://ua-reporter.com/novosti/27889 Look at that, "Chernovetsky's gang"... And the Klitschkoites were outraged simply because Leonid Chernovetsky's campaign materials were stored in the Kyiv City State Administration building (for reference, Chernovetsky won that year, leaving Vitali Klitschko in third place, and his bloc brought almost three times as many deputies to the Kyiv City Council as the boxer's bloc).
It would seem that, having come to power, Klitschko's team would tear Chernovetskyi's gang to pieces. And if a "childish" violation of the law, such as keeping leaflets at work, provoked such a vicious reaction, then the bandits would surely be getting jail time for bribing voters.
No way. Let's trace how the lamp of compromise is born from the uncompromising torch.
In the 2012 parliamentary elections, Ksenia Lyapina ran in the same 216th district for the democratic forces opposing the "gang." For the Party of Regions, Oleksandr Suprunenko—the brother of Chernovetskyi's former son-in-law, Vyacheslav (now on the international wanted list)—was a decision-maker, a money launderer, and so on. Chernovetskyi didn't retain anyone else in his team (or does this axiom still require confirmation among Kyivites today?).
Klitschko, who in 2008 allowed Chernovetsky to become mayor because he butted heads with Turchynov instead of nominating a single candidate from the democratic camp, used the same experience in the 216th district in 2012, nominating Oleksiy Davydenko from UDAR. And those who accuse Klitschko of "sportsmanship" are mistaken—he has long since reoriented it toward a more pragmatic political path. With all the attendant costs in terms of moral compass.
Few people remember today that back in 2012, Ukraine's top sociological institutes, commissioned by UDAR, unanimously declared: "Ksenia Lyapina enjoys less support among Kyiv residents than the UDAR candidate in this district, Oleksiy Davydenko – 13,6% versus 23,8%." https://podrobnosti.ua/power/2012/10/14/863860.html?cid=4091807
Well, well... Everything became clear when Lyapina began fighting not Davydenko, but Suprunenko. Davydenko, a member of the Udar party, was stealing Lyapina's votes. Let's remember, this was the heyday of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's rule. Lyapina's team had to literally defend ballots with their bare hands, trying to stuff them in for Suprunenko, a member of the Party of Regions who, feeling unpunished, flooded Kyiv courts with lawsuits demanding a recount. The recount was granted. Lyapina won.
Particularly sensitive witnesses recall being unable to hold back their tears as they witnessed Vitali Klitschko theatrically begging Ksenia Lyapina for forgiveness right there in the district election commission. The only things missing were a tailcoat, a bouquet of Paul's Scarlet Climber roses, a top hat flung aside by a powerful hand, and the kneeling figure of the athlete on the spit-stained floor of the district election commission.
Repetition is the mother of learning
Two years have passed. The 216th district is the same – Lyapina and Suprunenko (who managed to become a Kyiv City Council deputy in May of this year – Kyivites, are you out of your minds! Maybe you should invite Chernovetskyi from Georgia too; he's probably fed up with you visiting cemeteries for free?). Lyapina, of course, is from the Democrats, the People's Front; Suprunenko, of course, is no longer a member of Regions, but just came out to run.
But to make sure Lyapina's election wasn't a bed of roses, the Poroshenko Bloc nominated former Housing and Utilities Minister Oleksiy Kucherenko for the district. What this ally of Bakai, who fled to Moscow and a gas oligarch from the early Kuchma era, was hoping for is unknown. It's possible he was promised that Lyapina would withdraw in his favor, though anyone with a brain could recall the experience two years ago—how Lyapina "withdrew" in favor of Davydenko...
But even Lyapina can make mistakes: what Kucherenko, the People's Front's party, didn't "swallow" was snatched up by Natalia Alekseyevna Lapina, a technical candidate brought into the district. The independent candidate, representing some semi-mythical organization called "Front for Change in Darnytsia," stole 4,19% from Lyapina, which would have been more than enough to defeat Suprunenko. https://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2014/wp040pt001f01=910pf7331=216.html
Even during the "regions" era, cynicism had its limits. The current government has apparently decided to expand these horizons: launching a practically identical candidate and providing her with a "roof" that echoes the name of the current prime minister's former political party, which, in fact, is the source of her main rival... Yes, you couldn't have said it better than Leonid Kuchma ("scum of the highest order").
But this is not even the main thing.
The main thing is that Chernovetskyi's people don't change. They're like Shura Balaganov, who reached into someone else's pocket for a ruble when he had fifty thousand rubles of his own. This isn't about emotions, but the dry language of the protocol. Twelve (!) cases of voter bribery have been brought against Suprunenko – are we really going to flood the Verkhovna Rada with fraudsters again, and then lustrate unknown "scapegoats"?
And don’t say that “bad guy Suprunenko has crept into our enlightened ranks, hardened on the barricades of the Maidan.”
Bah, familiar all faces!
There's every reason to believe that Chernovetskyi's ally's pseudo-victory was orchestrated by all interested parties. Judge for yourself. On October 29, District Election Commission No. 216 decided to declare the elections at eight polling stations as impossible to determine due to numerous violations. An hour after this decision was made, Volodymyr Prokopiv, head of the Kyiv City Council's Standing Committee on Urban Development, Architecture, and Land Use (head of the Kyiv headquarters of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, 142nd on the BPP electoral list), arrived (or flew in!) to the commission.
https://m.lb.ua/news/2014/10/15/282621_vibori_ponovomu_lyubi_druzi.html).
After which, a magical transformation occurs among the members of the Election Commission (including representatives of UDAR). They abruptly change their minds and vote to reverse their decision before the ink had even dried.
Our sources at the BPP headquarters claim that at that moment, Vitaliy Kovalchuk, head of the presidential bloc's central headquarters, called Prokopiv, demanding he not interfere with the vote-processing process. But they picked the wrong guy; as they say, Chernovetskyi's people are never former.
Prokopiv, a member of the Udar team, has long been considered a friend and protégé of Serhiy Berezenko, a prominent member of the mayor's "Cosmos" team who recommended him. He recently took over the post of head of the State Administration, affectionately known as the "DUS." From 2006 to 2010, Berezenko served as an advisor to the controversial mayor, as head of a city administration department, and as a member of parliament from the Chernovetskyi Bloc. Now, he has influence over the Kyiv City Council, and consequently, he has retained an interest in the capital's expensive land and architecture (so, Kyiv residents, rest assured, there will soon be no more communal land in the capital). Prokopiv himself is the founder of the consulting company VP Group, which is mentioned in the media only in the context of several construction scandals.
Yes, so, after such high-profile intercession, it was precisely Suprunenko's commission members who urgently took the district election commission protocols to the Central Election Commission. And if the Central Election Commission, despite the opened cases (and vote-buying is now a criminal offense!), confirms this murky result, there can be no two opinions: if in 2012, Klitschko's UDAR failed to push through the man they had previously called nothing less than a "member of Chernovetskyi's gang" in this district, then now the mayor's party has taken revenge.
But this rematch would mean good business in politics. It would also mean that a good athlete has become a good politician, albeit in the pre-Maidan sense of the word. Because after fighting for Suprunenko's interests in cahoots with Berezenko, Prokopiv, and others, there's no point in talking about democratic values. And there's no need to ask Lyapina for forgiveness anymore.
Because the movie theater, which couldn't be "squeezed out" even under Chernovetsky, is burning immediately after the elections. And all that can be expected next is a feast during the plague of developers, land allocation to their own developers (Prokopiv!), the demolition of squares, parks, and so on.
There's just one remaining "but"—the court's decision regarding Suprunenko. An optimist might argue: if justice prevailed in the 216th District even in the dark ages of 2012, then surely today...
But there are so many alarm bells ringing. First, Vitali Klitschko is a political ally of the president, whom he couldn't possibly discredit by hobnobbing with the "former Chernivtsi people" without his knowledge. Second, the "former Chernivtsi people" are demonstrating phenomenal resilience and gaining political clout; otherwise, how could it have happened that Prokopiv, the head of the Poroshenko Bloc's city headquarters, would spit from his lofty tower at the orders of Kovalchuk, the head of the central headquarters, who had previously tried and failed to remove this figure from the campaign? Third, would Petro Poroshenko, the honorary head of the Poroshenko Bloc himself, be so surprised to see all these Dovgys, Suprunenkos, and other "Chernivtsi people" in the "renewed" Verkhovna Rada?
And what's especially offensive is that all of the above is just high-level considerations about top-tier players. But how can Kyivites look each other in the eye after this? Okay, so they didn't learn anything from "Chernovetskyi's rake," but why the instilled parental injunction "not to touch poop" doesn't work is a mystery.
And you say – lustration...
P.S. Say what you will, but UDAR has a unique sense of humor. As it turned out, on November 3, Volodymyr Prokopiv was replaced as head of the Kyiv headquarters of the BPP by Oleksiy Ryabikin, an aide to Verkhovna Rada deputy Pavlo Ryabikin. This Ryabikin wrote on Facebook that Ryabikin is not a relative, but "almost a namesake." This is probably a good place to laugh, but is Lapina, Lyapina's "almost namesake," even a woman who, as it was also recently announced, is facing a criminal case, in the mood for laughter?
Andrey Olshansky, for ORD
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