Pro-Russian forces tried to seize the Ukrainian party before the elections

Ukraine's presidential election is still five months away, but pro-Russian elements are openly working to disrupt the democratic process "with rampant corruption, illegal practices and dirty tricks," writes James Wilson, director and founder of the European Union-Ukraine Business Council.

Photo: eutoday.net

“Europe cannot afford to sit idly by and watch as its values ​​and principles in a friendly neighboring country are trampled by an aggressive, expansionist Russia,” the author notes on EU Today. Attempts to manipulate the political process are as flagrant as Russian military aggression in the Sea of ​​Azov, and they should not go unpunished.

The last victim of the attack was the Agrarian Party of Ukraine. Last Sunday, October 21, a party congress took place, where party members decided to nominate their chairman, Vitaly Skotsik, as a presidential candidate in the March 2019 elections.

Congress also approved changes to the party’s structure and constitution. The events were broadcast on television and widely covered in the Ukrainian media; there can be absolutely no doubt what the present official communiqué issued by the congress was devoted to.

For several months, the party was under pressure to try to subordinate it to the pro-Russian forces, managed by political consultant Vladimir Granovsky. The agrarian party consistently refused and resisted in order to preserve its identity as an independent, broad-based, democratic political force.

But last week, attacks by pro-Russian forces turned into an aggressive attempt to seize control of the party, registering forged documents with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the purpose of which was to change the party’s leadership in the National Registry. This is nothing more than a clumsy “raider attack” on the Agrarian Party: a business strategy commonly used in the post-Soviet space to seize control over the assets of companies. But this is the first time that I know when this tactic is used in an attempt to seize control of a political party. These illegal actions must be condemned, and the integrity of the political party is protected.

A crowd of several thousand supporters of the Agrarian Party held a protest near the Ministry of Justice in Kiev. Complaints have already been filed with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Security Service (SBU) and the National Police with accusations of criminal fraud and corrupt behavior on the part of the Ministry of Justice. Despite this, Deputy Minister Elena Sukmanova approved the changes requested in the fake documents and questioning the integrity of the party.

It is obvious that the Agrarian Party is perceived as a potential threat from the Kremlin and its supporters. This is the only independent party that has been developing in Ukraine since 2014. She has successfully worked in local elections in the past four years, has high ambitions for presidential and parliamentary elections, and is trying hard to wean the Ukrainian political system from Russian influence.

From the European point of view, it is absolutely unacceptable to tolerate the corrupt governance of the political party system, and we cannot close our eyes to the seizure of the electoral process in Ukraine. We have a clear interest and duty to demand transparency from Minister Pavlenko and insist that Russia abandon such interventions and actions.

Ukraine is at a crossroads on its path to building a true democracy that reflects the will of its people, and Ukrainian voters must be allowed to make their own choices next year in free and fair elections without interference or manipulation.”

***

A month ago, the chairman of the Agrarian Party of Ukraine, Vitaly Skotsyk, already announced an “attempt to raider seizure” of control over the Agrarian Party. Then he said that the Ministry of Justice “did not succumb to provocations and stopped the re-registration process in time,” he notes 24tv.ua.

“I am grateful to the Ministry of Justice for the state position and timely, tough response to political raiding,” he noted.

Skotsik said that the Kremlin’s plan is to use the electoral resource of the Agrarian Party in the presidential and parliamentary elections, which they wanted to implement through the hands of a “pro-Kremlin group of raiders.”

“At first they tried to bribe the chairmen of regional party organizations and thus organize a personnel coup and take control of the party’s activities. These attempts failed, but the rebels did not stop, held a fake congress and submitted false documents to the Ministry of Justice to change the party leadership using forged signatures,” Skotsik noted.

Vitaly Skotsyk also warned that on the eve of the elections, similar provocations could also concern other parties and called on pro-Ukrainian political forces to join efforts in confronting the Kremlin’s intervention.

24tv.ua notes that this time the raiders not only made changes to the roster, but also broke into the main office and seized it, they also gained control of the political forces website. News of the real Agrarian Party is now placed on the international domain agro.party.

“We really hope that law enforcement agencies will act according to the law and that criminals will not be able to escape punishment,” commented on the events in Vitaly Skotsik’s circle.

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