“Red” PR

The European choice of Ukraine still gives no peace to the supporters of the idea of reunion with Russia under the guise of the membership in the Customs Union. Despite that the European integration and signing of the Association Agreement with the EU are Ukraine’s strategic priorities, last Sunday the Communist Party of Ukraine initiated “holding the national referendum at people’s initiative concerning Ukraine’s entering the Customs Union within the Eurasian Economic Community.” It should be noted that previously, on September 2, District Administrative Court of Kyiv banned KPU from organizing and holding meetings concerning the national referendum on Ukraine’s joining the Customs Union and the Central Election Committee did not send there its representative (this is provided by the law “On the national referendum”).

However, the representatives of the Communist Party did not give up and filed a request to hold their meeting on September 8, having formally changed its topic for “holding a referendum on entering the Eurasian Economic Union.” This time the court allowed this so-called initiative group to hold their meeting, however, at the same time they prohibited the Central Election Committee from providing their representative. The last resolution means that without a member of the Central Election Committee it will be impossible to register the initiative group on holding a referendum about the Eurasian Economic Union and the meeting held by KPU is, at the outside, an ordinary meeting of the party leaders with their electors.

“The public gathering” passed in a more or less calm atmosphere if we ignore the following facts: journalists of the Ukrainian media were not allowed to the stadium Spartak where the meeting “at people’s initiative” was held (according to the law “On the national referendum,” all preparations for a referendum are public and open, which means that the organizers of the meeting acted illegally); surprisingly, the meeting was attended by the member of the Central Election Committee from the communists Yurii Donchenko (in his commentary to the media he claimed that he had come as a natural entity and as for the information about the meeting, he will treat it as an official body at the Central Election Committee); the officer of justice who brought the decision of the court as for the illegitimacy of the meeting was not allowed to the stadium (people in red with KPU logos on the jackets at the entrance to the stadium explained that the officer brought the decision of the first court and not of the last one they had on them and the bravest guards even threatened to sue him to the court).

Besides, except for KPU flags, the stadium was decorated with three-color flags of Medvedchuk’s civic movement “Ukrainian choice.” However, the head of “Ukrainian choice” never came to the meeting, whereas the leader of the communists Petro Symonenko inspired the whole event. As the chairman of the board of the civic network “Opora” Olha Aivazovska emphasized during the press conference called “Will the law on the national referendum work?”, Symonenko’s messages were reduced to the propaganda of entering the Customs Union and the integration into the Eurasian Economic Community that was supposed to be the topic of the meeting was voiced only during the official ceremony. The expert also shared the idea that “today there are no reasons to speculate that similar initiatives can torpedo signing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.”

“The topic of the referendum offered by the communists is not an alternative between the Customs Union and the EU, that is why I regard the questions brought up during the meeting only in the political prospective,” Aivazovska believes. “If the questions had been formulated in the context of cancelling the decision on Ukraine’s aspirations for the European integration or signing the Association Agreement with the EU, its legal implications would be much more serious.”

Svitlana Kononchuk, head of the program for democratization of political institutions of the Ukrainian Independent Center for Political Research remarked in the interview to The Day that in general, the initiative of KPU and “Ukrainian choice” concerning the national referendum on Ukraine’s entering the Customs Union is hopeless and is aimed at satisfying those sponsors of KPU whose export is oriented to the Russian market and is another attempt of political PR from the leader of the communists Petro Symonenko in his ambitions for presidency 2015. “The political consequences of this initiative will show in a year and a half when the presidency campaign starts and KPU will be able to beat breast saying that they did their best to organize a referendum on entering the Customs Union,” the expert assures.

As for the possibility to register in the Central Election Committee an initiative group from KPU and “Ukrainian choice” and holding a referendum on joining the Eurasian Economic Union, Svitlana Kononchuk opined that it is hardly possible as it would contradict the current regulation of the law “On the national referendum” regarding the necessity for a member of the Central Election Committee to be present at such meeting (Yurii Donchenko, mentioned above did not have such powers).

In general, public activists and experts opine that their indignation is provoked not by the fact of holding a “red” referendum somewhat unrealistic from the point of all political realities, but the possibility of implementing the controversial law “On the national referendum.” They emphasize that the representatives of different political forces have repeatedly suggested improving the law (the list of necessary amendments has already been worked out by the Coalition of NGOs “For fair referendum”), however nobody has supported their practical realization so far. What is more, the representatives of the Venice Commission expressed their concerns about democratic character of the scandalous law on the referendum and urged Ukraine to make it meet the European standards as soon as possible.