Crimean "proving ground": anatomy of regional coup?

The Presidential decree, by which he deprived Yalta of its Head (who was "absent") and appointed Acting Head, considerably varying the life at each neighboring levels of power — from the Yalta city council to Verkhovna Rada.

Appointed by the President, Volodymyr Marchenko, former Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, came to Yalta on Monday and was familiarized with the Constitution and the law on Local self-government, but was not given an office, despite his persuasions and threats. Instead, in the evening Yalta deputies barricaded themselves in the premises.

The chronicles of further events (it is important both for experience and for prevention, since no one has guarantees) is as follows. At 6:30 Anatoly Gritsenko, Speaker of the Crimean parliament, got a phone call from Yalta: the building of the city council was surrounded by two chains of the police, about 200 people, fire engines and ambulance cars were driven to. At 6:56 Mr. Gritsenko found Genady Moskal, Head of the General Department of Internal Affairs, and heard from him that at 4:30 they had been informed that the office of Yalta Head had been mined. In response Gritsenko said that that system was known in Crimea and could be easily settled, then he made a call to Kyiv. At 7:50 Volodymyr Maximov, Deputy of Verkhovna Rada, answered from a reception room the phone call from The Day's correspondent: "There is number 1 alert condition outside, they are about to launch an assault, back-up with dogs has just come. 15 deputies barricaded themselves in the Head office, and they won't leave whatever happens." At 8:41 the power troops entered the building and started its inspection, looking for a bomb or mine. At 12:00 Anushavan Danilya, Vice Speaker, together with parliamentary commission was in Yalta. There were about 300 people near the City Council, they were being given printed materials, informing how Mr. Franchuk, Prime-Minister had established a free economic zone, the Great Yalta — SEZ Administration joint-stock company (Den, of February 3).

At about 14:00 the siege was lifted and surrounding forces withdrawn from the city council. Alexander Kalus, Secretary of Council, who has legal powers, in the chairman's absence, entered the building, where he had not been allowed from the morning by the police chains.

Yalta events drew attention of Verkhovna Rada. Yuri Karmasin awaited a report from General Prosecution Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. "We cannot pretend that did not notice a tryout for a coup d'etat," he said. Pavlo Lazarenko also put in a word word, eager to clear the situation with Pravda Ukrainy. "Closing newspapers was also how the anti-Gorbachev Putsch started out. Ukraine is on the threshold of state of emergency." Woe betide the country, where. Lazarenko himself calls on all political forces to unite against the regime, when journalists of the closed papers and legally elected bodies have to barricade themselves in their offices. Isn't there someone who could stop the lawlessness, coming from the those supposed to guarantee legality?

One has to admit that they picked the right moment. "Unofficial" fraternization with Russia in the vein of "my country is your country" freed Kyiv's hands precisely in the Crimea, where the neighbors used to poke their noses in uninvited. They could expel Ukraine from the Council of Europe, but they haven't yet. However, Boris Oliynyk, vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, stated from the Verkhovna Rada tribune that at the next session of the CE Parliamentary Assembly they would renew the Ukrainian issue. "I assure you that the Council of Europe has already been informed on the Yalta events, as well as on the Pravda Ukrainy closure..."

But the press and local leaders got the most interesting information from Genady Moskal, the Head of the General Department of Internal Affairs: at 11:45 they found an explosive device at the roof of the city council. Or even two of them. One more thing we should find out — who put it there.

Photo by Leonid Berestovsky, specially for The Day:
Crimean People's Deputy Volodymyr Shevtsov being denied entry to the Yalta City Council