Know your Enemy :The new neoliberal fascist government in Ukraine

Democracy and Class Struggle says repeating the words of Sun Tzu :Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster- Sun Tzu

Information supplied by Borotba.

What is the outcome at governmental level of the crisis in Ukraine? When looking at both the acting president, ministers, governmental bodies and regional governors posts one can find interesting patterns. One can find a clear division of labor between the new forces at work selecting different areas of interest between themselves. Thus there is a clear difference in the composition between those in power of economic importance, those in the field of security, in culture, in envrionmental and social issues or more in general from the acting president to the governors.

General

Oleksandr Turchynov

Acting president of Ukraine is Oleksandr Turchynov from Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party. He referred to the current government as a "doomed" body that would have only three-four months to implement radical and deeply unpopular reforms. Turchynov is the first deputy chairman of the political party Batkivshchyna (All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland"). He was born in Dnipropetrovsk. Turchynov is an old ally of Yulia Tymoshenko, another prominent Ukrainian political figure from his home town. They used to have a common business in the city. In 1998, he was elected to parliament as a member of Hromada. But he left the faction and party in 1999 together with Yulia Tymoshenko's All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland". He was re-elected to parliament in 2002 and 2006. In 2005, Turchynov was appointed and served as the first‐ever civilian head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). WikiLeaks documents mention Turchynov, then head of Ukraine's SBU, as having destroyed documents implicating Yulia Tymoshenko's alleged connections to crime boss Semyon Mogilevich, a person among FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk

The present Prime Minister is Arseniy Yatsenyuk. He has formulated himself very similarily to the the acting president. He has warned of "extremely unpopular" financial steps ahead, and has grimly referred to new cabinet members as "kamikaze" posts. Yatsenyuk is one of the leading members of Fatherland party. He formerly served as economy and foreign minister. Yatsenyuk was elected to the parliament from Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc in 2007 and later the same year he was elected the Chairman of the Parliament. During the Ukrainian political crises of September 2008 he resigned. Yatsenyuk announced plans to create a political party on basis of the Front of Changes public initiative. According to Wikipedia has he often been referred to as a political clone lacking differentiating policies of Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko. On April 5, 2009, Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his candidacy for President of Ukraine in the next presidential election. During the election campaign fellow candidate Serhiy Ratushniak repeatedly insulted Yatsenyuk because of his alleged Jewish roots, among others Ratushniak called Yatsenyuk an "impudent little Jew" who was "successfully serving the thieves who are in power in Ukraine and is using criminal money to plough ahead towards Ukraine's presidency".

According to Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Yaakov Bleich Yatsenyuk is not Jewish. Yatsenyuk stated in November 2009 that Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko and Party of Regions were "almost a single whole". In April 2010 Yatsenyuk was officially chosen as party leader of Front for Change; by that time the public initiative had become a political party also. During the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election Yatsenyuk competed on a party list based on the party All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland.Yatsenyuk headed this election list; because "Fatherland"-leader Yulia Tymoshenko was imprisoned after a trial were former president Yushchenko witnessed against here on charges of corruption. Yatsenyuk was elected leader of the parliamentary faction of "Fatherland" on 12 December 2012. In late 2013 he became one of the three main opposition figures during Euromaidan together with Klitschko, from the UDAR party Tyahnybok leader of the Svoboda party.

He lost some public appeal after negotiating compromise deal with now-ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the Party of Regions. Yatseniuk wants European Union membership for Ukraine. Yatseniuk is against privatization of state property and wants to simplify the civil service. In November 2009 he saw as his most difficult task if elected President "to break the political clan system that has been built up over the last 18 years". Yatsenyuk wants to create a common energy company with European Union countries and Russia. Yatseniuk has opposed participation of Ukrainian troops in peacekeeping operations abroad.

Yatseniuk opposes same-sex marriage, because it contradicts his personal beliefs as a Greek Catholic.

Andriy Deshchytsya

Andrii Deshchytsia is Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. He is a career diplomat, Deshchytsya has served as ambassador to Finland and Iceland, and also has long-standing ties with neighboring Poland. A Lviv native, Deshchytsya received a Ph.D. in political science from Canada's University of Alberta, and is fluent in Polish, English, and Russian. Since 2012 has served as ambassador at large and the OSCE's special representative on protracted resolution, driving Ukraine's efforts to resolve Moldova's Transdniestrian conflict. He is fluent in Ukrainian, Russian, Finnish, English, and Polish.

Economy

In the economic leadership there is a strong presence in the government of oligarchs and their close allies, especially those closely related to IhorKolomoyskiy, the third richest man in Ukraine. When Kolomoyskiy also was appointed governor in Dnipropetrovsk  the second wealthiest region in Ukraine and the oligarch Serhyi Taruta became governor in Donetsk, the richest region in the country what was already clear at the governmental level got substantiated at the regional level. If key economic positions at the governmental level are not held by oligarchs and their closely related friends they are occupied by experienced people in privatizing common wealth or are fascists.

Pavlo Sheremeta

Pavlo Sheremeta is the new Minister of Economical Development and Trade of Ukraine. He was born in Lviv. Pavlo Sheremeta earned his undergraduate degree in economics at the Lviv University and an MBA degree at Emory University (Atlanta, USA). He also completed number of management development programs at the Harvard Business School, the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute, the China Europe International Business School. In 1999, he founded and became the first Dean of the Kyiv Mohyla Business School. In 2006–2010, he was Vice-President of the Central and East European Management Development Association. In 2008–2011, he was part of the team of the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute of Malaysia, which advised the Malaysian government on economic reforms. From 2012 until early 2014, he was the President of the Kyiv School of Economics, a radical privatizer and deregulator.

Oleksandr Shlapak

Oleksandr Shlapak is Ukrainian politician, bureaucrat, and the current Minister of Finance of Ukraine. In 1982 he graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute majoring in "Automatic control systems", MD — system engineer. In 2009 — Ukrainian State University of Finance and International Trade, majoring in "International Economics" and received master's degree in international economics. He started his political career as secretary of the Komsomol Committee of Lviv Polytechnic Institute and later higher levels of this Communist Youth organization during 6 years. In 1990 he became chairman of the Regional Council of the Democratic Youth Union of Lviv. In 1993 his career started in PrivatBank from local to regional and national level a bank owned by the oligarch Kolomoyskiy.

1998 he became Head of Adviser to the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine on the economy. In 2001 Minister of Economy and European integration and the same year Member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. In 2003 Deputy Chairman of the National Bank and 2005 Chairman of the State Treasury of Ukraine. 2007- 2010 First Deputy Head of the Presidential Secretariat of Ukraine — President's representative in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. 2010–2014 — Vice President of "IMG International Holding Company". Continues to hold positions of Co-president of Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of the Association of taxpayers voluntarily. Kyiv Post on Schlapak: The Finance Ministry was taken over by Russian-born, Lviv-educated Oleksandr Shlapak.

 A former deputy head of PrivatBank, he is also a representative of the Kolomoisky group in the new Cabinet. In his previous government incarnations, he has served as President Leonid Kuchma's economy minister and deputy head of the President Yushchenko's secretariat, among other. Shlapak was one of the witnesses for prosecution during the Tymoshenko trial, which sent her to jail for seven years.

Yuriy Prodan

Yuri Prodan is the new Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine. He is a power engineer and politician. He has served as Minister of Fuel and Energy 2007 - 2010. He made a rapid career in the regional "Kyivenergo" and later att national level in the Power Company "UkrEnergo". In 2001 he became Chairman of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission of Ukraine. In 2004–2005 head of fuel, energy and energy efficiency of the Kiev City State Administration. From February 2005 First Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy, President of NAC "Energy Company of Ukraine". Kyiv Post writes about Prodan: One of the most controversial appointees took over the energy ministry, which supervises the sector where multi-billion fortunes have been made in Ukraine since independence, through highly corrupt schemes and at the expense of the people. Russian-born Yuriy Prodan, 55, had already been in this job under President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2007-2010.

He had previously worked in Kyivenergo, the capital's energy monopoly supplier, and played a central role in creation of the National Energy Market. Despite its name, it has become a poorly controlled state monopoly for sale of electricity. Prodan has been described by the Ukrainian media as a person close to Privat Group of controversial billionaire Igor Kolomoisky. Radio Free Europe describes him somewhat different: Yuriy Prodan (55) -- Russian-born Prodan returns to the key energy post after serving a 2 1/2-year stint under Yulia Tymoshenko, during which Ukraine signed the controversial natural-gas deal with Russia that Yanukovych later used to jail Tymoshenko. He is not aligned with any political party. Prodan, whose career includes stints at the monopoly energy suppliers for Kyiv and Ukraine, also served as deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. His first tasks may include negotiating a manageable agreement on Russian gas supplies and pushing through energy-pricing reforms seen as key to the EU Association Agreement.

Maksym Burbak

Maksym Burbak is the new Minister of Infrastructure. He is a member of the political council of the Fatherland party Batkivshchyna,. President of the NGO "Interregional Agricultural Society" (Chernivtsi). He started as a businessmen 1998.  Became Deputy Director of "Fintrast", Chernivtsi in 2006. Acting Director of "Bucovina Auto Alliance", Chernivtsi.
 in 2008. In 2010 he started becoiming active in politics as a Member of the Chernivtsi Regional Council, the head of the "Front for Change". In 2012 he was elected to the parliament from the Fatherland Party as № 43 on the national list. He became Chairman of the Subcommittee on the development strategy of the customs policy of free trade and economic integration of the Parliamentary Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy.

Oleksandr Sych

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych is a member of parliament from the nationalist Svoboda party. Sych has served as the party's longtime ideological chief and the head of its regional organizations in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Has worked as a history professor and has authored numerous essays changing the history of Ukraine's ultranationalist and Nazi collaborators into a glorified liberation movement. He co-authored a controversial bill proposing to ban abortion except in instances of medical need or documented rape. Has said women have the right to not get pregnant, but should do so by "leading an orderly life." His role is by some sources stated as to oversee economy issues.

Volodymyr Groysman

Volodymyr Groysman is the other deputy prime minister, in full Deputy Prime Minister for Regional Policy — Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine. He was elected the Mayor of Vinnytsia at the age of 28 as the youngest Mayor of the regional center of Ukraine. On 25 November 2005 was elected the Head of the City Council and was the acting Mayor of Vinnytsia. From 1994 to 2005 he was taking leading positions in commercial structures, primarily agrarian business and real estate.. He is seen as close to millionaire businessman and member of parliament Petro Poroshenko, also a Vinnytsia native. Before starting a political career, he was involved in agrarian business and real estate.

Security and juridical positions

Arsen Avakov

Arsen Avakov is the new Interior Minister. He started his career as engineer employed by All-Union Scientific-Research Institute on Water Protection (Kharkiv). In 1990 Arsen Avakov founded and headed “Investor” JSC, аnd “Basis” Commercial Bank later in 1992. In 2002 Avakov was elected a Member of the Executive Committee of Kharkiv City Council.

In 2010 Avakov withdrew from “Our Ukraine” political party headed by the President Viktor Yushchenko and joined “Batkivshchyna” party and accepted the offer of Yulia Tymoshenko to lead the regional organization of “Batkivshchyna” political party.

He was accused of illegal privatization of land and abuse of power in 2012 and was under criminal investigation by the previous government, which forced him to flee to Italy. Avakov was put on the international wanted list of Interpol and put under house arrest in Italy.

He was elected into parliament later the same year and a following Court ruling made it possible for him to return. His fellow party members said the case was politically motivated. Radio Free Europe claims he is one of the most authoritative members of Batkivshchyna at the moment, who emerged during the revolution. Interior minister Avakov stated as one of his first intentions that the Right sector should be integrated into the state security apparatus. This has also been the case.

The National Security council is firmly in the hands of former leader of a National Socialist organization.


Andriy Parubiyk

The secretary Andriy Parubiyk of the National Security Council with a position more present than most ministers at the moment is a former founder of the Social-Nationalist party in Ukraine together with Oleh Tyahnybok, the leader of the follow up party Svoboda. Parubiyk was one of the commanders at Maidan and still supports Nazi collaborators while being member of parliament for the Fatherland party. On 26 of February 2014 he made a protest against EU for the condemnation of Stepan Bandera, the antisemitic and ultra nationalist leader before and during World War II.

Valentyn Nalhyvaichenko

Chief of the Security Service is Valentyn Nalhyvaichenko. He made a diplomatic career and were at the Ukrainian Embassy in the US 2001 -2003. In June 2006 he was appointed the First Deputy of the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The State Secret Service under Nalyvaichenko took leadership in promoting and implementing the Euro-Atlantic strategy of Ukraine. He initiated a joint Working Group “Ukraine-NATO” on military reform. As head of SBU Nalyvaichenko put much effort into presenting the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators and organizers of pogroms against Jews and Polacks as friends of Jews by a selective use of archive materials. SBU then created a historical myth exaggerating the number of victims of the famine in several parts of Soviet Union by separating Ukraine, taking the highest scholarly estimate and adding 6,122,00 “unborn” children ending with the claim that 10,063,000 had been murdered in a genocide by Soviet Union. This was part of national policy to glorify the extreme right and Ukraine as a nation of victims with the famine in the 1930s as the pinnacle under the Yushchenko’s presidency after the Orange revolution. In 2010 Nalhyvaichenko entered party politics and in 2012 became member of the UDAR party.

Pavlo Petrenko

Pavlo Petrenko is the new Minister of Justice. He is a politician, jurists, lawyer. He is a Member of Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the party Batkivshchyna.
Education. He entered the law faculty of Chernivtsi National University, handicrafts, graduating in 2001 and was educated in the specialty "Jurisprudence". Has the educational qualification of Master of Laws degree. In 2004 he received the diploma of the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine in "Management". In 2014 he received a Candidate of Sciences degree in juridical sciences. Work began legal counsel for private law firms, and in December 2001 became General Counsel of State Savings Bank of Ukraine, where he continued to work until 2005 in senior positions in the department of legal support. From 2006 to 2010, engaged in the practice of law.

Since 2009 he has been a member of the political party "Front of Changes", was a bureau of the party and led the legal department. In November 2010 he was elected a deputy of the Kiev Regional Council, member of the standing committee on law and order and fighting corruption. In the parliamentary elections in December 2012 has held the position of Head of Legal Department of the United Opposition "Batkivshchyna". From 12 December 2012 — Deputy of Ukraine of the 7th convocation of the party "Batkivshchyna", № 52 on the list. Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on the rule of law and justice. After the unification of the "Front of Changes" and the "Batkivshchyna" he was chosen as one of the deputy leader of the "Batkivshchyna" in 2013. According to Kyiv Post Pavlo Petrenko, is a Yatseniuk loyalist.

Oleh  Makhnitskyi

The Prosecutor general is Oleh Makhnitskyi from the Svoboda Party. He is a lawyer, head of Svoboda legal service and member of Parliament. His priority tasks was stated at his offfcial website as: ”among basic priorities of the prosecution service activities was ensuring that participants of protests, except for those who committed murder, are released and granted relief from criminal liability based on rule of law and according to law. “All decisions issued in cases of “Maidanivtsi” need to be reviewed from the standpoint of the rule of law”, - Mr. Makhnitskyi underlined. He also highlighted the necessity to give appropriate legal evaluation of heads of the law enforcement authorities who stood idle or committed illegal actions during the events at Maidan, in particular, to identify and hold liable the officials involved in bloodshed.   Oleh Makhnitskyi reminded everyone present that an investigation team had been formed from experts of the PGO, the Interior Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine who are investigating mass killing of people in the central area of Kyiv. “Stopping displays of separatism” was determined by Mr. Makhnitskyi as a specific priority of the prosecution service’s activities. One of his first acts as Prosecutor general was to inform that an international warrant hade been send out for Former Interior Minister of Ukraine Vitali Zakharchenko and ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich. They are accused of indiscriminate killings.

Tetyana Chornovol

Tetyana Chornovol has been appointed in the new position as Anticorruption Bureau Chief. She joined the Nazi inspired UNA-UNSO organization at the age of 17, and later began her media work there as a press secretary. However, she soon became disillusioned with extremist politics, but remained committed to radical social activism. She also maintained her connections to UNA-UNSO by reporting from secessionist conflicts in Russian Caucasus in which the UNA-UNSO volunteers participated figthing against the Russian army.

Chornovol unsuccessfully ran in the 2012 parliamentary election in a suburban Lviv Oblast constituency, representing the oppositional Batkivshchyna party. It is unclear whether Chornovol is an active member of the party or exerts any influence on its decisions. She participated in most patriotic/anti-corruption actions in Ukraine since late 1990s, including the Ukraine without Kuchma (2001), Orange Revolution (2004), 2011 protests against Russian language use expansion, and Euromaidan protests. During "Ukraine without Kuchma" (while still with the UNA-UNSO), she handcuffed herself to the busy rails in the Kyiv Passenger Railway Station with a fellow female protester. In 2011-2013, Chornovol participated in several risky protests against illegal land development, historical architecture destruction, and local government oppression in the city of Kyiv. In the first week of Euromaidan, Chornovol, attacked a van suspected of conducting covert surveillance of protest leaders. The automobile turned out to be a communications intelligence vehicle of the Security Service of Ukraine. In 2004, Tetyana Chornovol began specializing in investigative journalism, contributing to several Ukrainian online newspapers, including Ukrayinska Pravda, Levyi Bereg and Obozrevatel.

Her focus topics are suspicious personal wealth of Ukrainian politicians, public servants, and businessmen, as well as their involvement in crime. Among Chornovol's many investigative publications are those addressing the alleged organized crime backgrounds of Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, and former President, Viktor Yanukovych, as well as Yanukovych's lavish former countryside property.

During the Euromaidan conflicts she participated strongly , Chornovol made an on-site investigation of the suburban alleged property of Ukraine's Internal Affairs Minister (police chief) Vitaliy Zakharchenko and published a blog report with photos as well as those allegedly belonging to the country's General Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka. Chornovol survived a horrifying beating at the hands of unknown assailants hours after publishing the article accusing Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko of mass corruption. Her beating added to Euromaidan calls for Zakharchenko's ouster, as well as the need to create a specific government post dealing with corruption issues. Kyiv Post tell about Chornolov: ”Despite being perceived as one of revolution's heroes, especially after her brutal beating on Christmas Day, Chornovol is a highly controversial figure in Ukrainian politics. Formerly an investigative journalist, she ran for parliament in 2012 and lost. Because of her explosive personality, she is unlikely to be able to form a strong team that would work systematically towards setting up a strong anti-corruption bureau and push many investigations to the very end.”

Yehor Sobolev

Yehor Sobolev has been appointed in the new position as Lustration Coimmittee Chief. He is a career journalist and Euromaidan commandant credited with being one of the protests' most astute organizers and strategists. Sobolev, who had rare access to Yanukovych during the 2004 Orange Revolution, urged protesters early on to avoid violence at all costs, saying it took away their "moral high ground." Like the anticorruption bureau, the lustration committee is a new post, created at the insistence of Maidan organizers.

Vitaliy Yarema

First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema will now oversee the defense, interior, and foreign ministries, as well as the National Security and Defense Council. Yarema is the former chief of the Kyiv police force, Yarema became a powerful critic of Interior Ministry forces during Euromaidan and has spearheaded independent investigations into a number of attacks on protesters, including that on journalist Tetyana Chornovol. Yarema, is a Fatherland mp since 2012. Yatsenyuk has referred to Yarema as the No. 2 official in the new government. He has been less visible so far than Andriy Parubiyk, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

Environmental and Social

Andriy Mokhnyk

Andriy Mokhnyk is the new Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine . He is the Deputy Chairman of the fascist Svoboda party, and a member of their Political Council . By September 2010 he was head of the Kiev organization "Svoboda", deputy of the Kiev Regional Council from 2010–2012, member of the Ukrainian parliament from 2012–present. After school he worked in education, with a personal experience of combat Russification.

In 1994 he graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Civil Engineering as a civil engineer. In 2011 he graduated from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University majoring as lawyer. He completed a postgraduate studies in "History of Ukraine". He worked as a foreman, an engineer at the Research Institute. For a while he worked in the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. Andriy Mokhnyk is actively participating in contacts with other facsoist partie. Sfter a meeting with representatives of Forza Nuova (Italy) he stated: "Regular meetings of the two nationalist parties' representatives, systematic discussions of common problems and coordination of parties' activities is an example of good cooperation between Svoboda and Forza Nuova.” His political promises include the prohibition of the communist ideology and the trial of the Communist and Prohibit sales of agricultural land. PartyKyiv Post writes: Andriy Mokhnyk, 42-year-old deputy head of Svoboda with three higher educations (none ecology-related), took over the ecology ministry. This may be bad news for international companies that have signed agreements with Ukraine to develop alternative energy sources because the party had organized fierce resistance campaigns across the nation.

Ihor Shvaika

Ihor Shvaika is the new Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. Shvaika was elected to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada during the 2012 parliamentary election as a member of the fascist Svoboda party. Born in the independent Russian Republic of Kalmykia East of Ukraine where he spent the first 2 years of his life, Shvaika grew up in the city of Lutuhyne, Luhansk Oblast after 1978. He graduated from the National University “Yaroslav the Wise Law Academy of Ukraine” in Kharkiv with a law degree. During this time he already worked as a legal adviser to a number of private companies and then joined a private law firm called "Terra" as "Deputy Director of Legal Affairs". During the following year he headed the law firm "Ilyashev and partners" and in 2000 he started his own law firm called "Zeus". In 2007 he became member of Svoboda and in 2008 he led the Kharkiv regional chapter.

In October 2010 he ran as a candidate for Mayor of Kharkiv, receiving 0.84% of the vote. During the parliamentary elections of Ukraine on 28 October 2012, he was elected to Parliament for "Freedom", which ranked at number eight. He became Deputy Chairman of the 17-member Committee on Rules, Ethics and Support to Work of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Shvaika promises to guarantee the food security of Ukraine.

He has appealed against the decision of Kharkiv Oblast Council on shale gas mining as part of the Svoboda questioning of Shell agreements with the former government. At first Oleksandr Myrnyi from the Svoboda party was proposed as the new Agriculture Minister. He is among the top 5 Svoboda's highest earners, according to Forbes, after declaring an income of close to Hr 17 million in 2012.

He business interests are concentrated in agriculture, which represented a conflict of interests in in a position as environmental minister which is seen as the reason why Shvaika was appointed instead.

Lyudmyla Denysova

The Social minister Lyudmyla Denysova has been in governments before, and as Kyiv post puts it “is no stranger to controversies.” The State Security Service discovered high amounts of embezzlement in her ministry, but no criminal case was ever started.

Oleh Musiy

The health minister Oleh Musiy is probably the most popular among the ministers. He was given a standing ovation when introduced in the parliament due to his role as coordinator of medical care on Maidan. He has served as the president of the Ukrainian Medical Association.

Culture and youth

Serhiy Kvit

New Education Minister Serhiy Kvit, 48, has worked as President of Kyiv-Mohyla University since 2007. He attacked the previous Education Minister for attempting to limit university autonomy and limiting available seats for potential students. The former minister was seen as having "Ukrainophobic" tendencies. According to Kvit ”We still have a defective pro-Russian rhetoric in education, which ignores the fact that corruption, low institutional standards and lack of freedom of speech of our northern neighbor will soon reach the level of North Korea.” Kvit has been a member of right-wing organizations in Ukraine, Between 1995 and 1998, Kvit was a member of the Presidium of the Head Leadership of the KUN (Holovnyi provid KUN) and a commander, «sotnyk», of the Stepan Bandera Tryzub, a paramilitary wing of the KUN that split from the party in 2000. Serhiy Kvit banned the exhibition at his university of the Visual Culture Research Center “Ukrainian Body” in 2012.

 The exhibition explored the issues of corporality in contemporary Ukrainian society. Serhiy Kvit explained his decision in the following way: “It’s not an exhibition, it’s shit”. After the act of censorship, which drew a wide response in the Ukrainian and foreign media, Kvit initiated a number of bureaucratic restrictions and resolutions against the Visual Culture Research Center as the organizers of the exhibition. Kvit supported EuroMaidan from the early days and led his schools' students during the protests. Serhyi Kvit has a academician made strong efforts to glorify the ultra nationalist Dontsov who inspired the Ukrainian fascist party and militia during World War II. The ideology brought forward by Dontsov called for the birth of a "new man" with "hot faith and stone heart" who would not be afraid to mercilessly destroy Ukraine's enemies.

He believed that a national culture is something sacred and should be protected by any means necessary, an ideology the inspired the ultranationalist organizations during the war. Radio Free Europe calls Kvit ”one of Ukraine's most respected literary critics and educators.” they also state: ”His appointment is certain to please Ukraine's politically active student class.” Kyiv Post claims ”Despite revolutionary zeal, he was not known for leading any major changed in his school, and was not the student community's first choice for minister.”

Dmytro Bulatov

Dmytro Bulatov is the new minister for Youth and Sport. He is one of the leaders of AutoMaidan protest groups, crucial in supporting the protesters with supplies. He was kidnapped and tortured in January. Educated in Kyiv Polytechnic University, he has run a number of small businesses, including an car service, a restaurant and a consulting company. Bulatov is a chairman of NGO Socially Responsible Society.

Yevhen Nyshchuk.

Another prominent Maidan activist given a post in the new government is Yevhen Nyshchuk. Actor and singer who served as unofficial master of ceremonies at the Euromaidan protests.

Regional Governors

Ukraine is a unitary state. Its administrative division is made up of 24 regions called oblasts, one autonomous republic, Crimea and two cities, Kiev and Sevastopol having a special legal status. In the two richest oblasts in the East oligarchs has been appointed governors by the central government in an attempt to have influential persons counteracting Russian influence in a part of rthe country were the strong political party was headed by Janukovitsch. Seven other governors belongs to the leading centre right party Fatherland.

Four governors from the fascist Svoboda party. One from the centre right party Nasha Ukrajina ("Our Ukraine"), formerly Viktor Yushchenko Election Bloc-Our Ukraine, wirh one more governor formelry a long time member of the party.

One from Sobor, another centre-right party. Three technocrats. Four governor posts has no new appointment yet.

The changing political landscape in Ukraine and the intentions of some of the politicians has become especially openly expressed in Dnipopetrovsk. Some concern has been raised by the fact that so many fascists politicans from Svoboda and even more radical right wing politicians from the Right sector as well as some politicians from the Fatherland party and UDAR glorifying the antisemite ultranationalists during the second world war is part of the new government. Asan argument against the fact that at least one minister is a jew and the new governor Kolomoyskiy is one of the leading promoters of Jewish culture in the country and is also both a Ukrainian and a Israeli citizen.

Boris Filatov

His newly-appointed deputy head Boris Filatov, of the industrial Dnepropetrovsk region has shared his recipe of how to calm protesters in Crimea opposing the self-proclaimed country’s government: “This scum should be given promises, guarantees, and any concessions…And hung…They should be hung later,” This instead of sending any pro-Maidan activists to the Ukrainian Autonomous Republic, which has been protesting against the coup-imposed government and not to make any radical statements.

Filatov, is a lawyer and a businessman, wrote on his Facebook page commenting on events in Crimea. The post – particularly its part on “hang them later” – drew wide media attention. Filatov was quick to note though that he was writing “not as an official.”

In his earlier controversial post, the businessman stated that Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator and leader of Ukraine's Nationalist Organization, was his hero. Filatov is one of the richest businessmen in the Dnepropetrovsk region, Filatov got his administration seat on after returning to Ukraine from Israel. He fled the country early in the year, fearing what he claimed to be political persecution by the Yanukovich regime for supporting Maidan protests.


Tord Bjork

DEMOCRACY AND CLASS STRUGGLE SAYS THOSE INTERESTED IN EXPOSING RIGHT WING AND FASCIST FALSIFICATION OF UKRAINIAN HISTORY ESPECIALLY THE MYTH OF THE MAN MADE UKRAINIAN FAMINE A GOOD PLACE TO START IS AN ARTICLE BY MARK TAUGER HERE:

http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/taugerroterhol.pdf

FOR A MORE DETAILED STUDY OF ISSUES AROUND UKRAINIAN FAMINE VISIT HERE:

http://history.wvu.edu/faculty/current-faculty/mark-b-tauger/soviet-agriculture-and-famines