Can freedom be banned on Freedom Day?

Vitali Klitschko, leader of UDAR (Ukr. acronym of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform), WBC heavyweight champion, described as an intellectual boxer by Lina Kostenko in her Notes of a Ukrainian Madman, was the last guest of Den/The Day at the old editorial office in Obolon (the newspaper will soon move to new premises). Stepping into the conference room, he immediately spotted a photo of the late 1990s with him and his brother Wladimir as the editors’ guests, in that same room. His first remark was: “Much water has run under the bridge…” Indeed, a lot has happened to warrant questions.

Of course, one of the first questions concerned Freedom Day with the authorities banning rallies.

“Each such ban is a double-edged sword. Those in power are wrong believing that by doing so they can muffle the reverberations, for the effect is the exact opposite. By imposing such bans our current political leadership demonstrates its attitude to the people who wish to celebrate Freedom Day. I was on the Maidan. I didn’t go there to support separate persons but to support the desire of the people to defend their rights rather than the interests of industrial-financial groups. They wanted equal opportunities for all, as practiced across the world.

In this case the mind-your-own-business principle just doesn’t work, so those in power are scared by such mass demonstrations. After the

Orange Revolution the new political leadership relies on the same principles, expect that some financial-industrial groups have been replaced by others. A friend of mine told me, ‘Millionaires have come to take the seats of billionaires.” And so people are bitterly disappointed. Shuster’s last talk show demonstrated 90 percent of votes for the assumption that the coming parliamentary elections would be rigged. This is crucial statistic as the social temperature keeps rising. A lot of people, especially in the countryside and in small towns, are struggling to survive (Kyiv is a different story; here there is electricity, running water, and jobs). These people see no light at the end of the tunnel. So unless steam is blown off, the whole thing may well explode. There is an end to any kind of patience. That’s not what I think personally, that’s what people think, people with whom I meet as a politician.”

More on this, particularly campaign details, European prospects, the movie Rocky, Klitschko the tour guide in one of the next issues.