Electoral puppet theater

What did I see at Den’s Photo Exhibition? I saw more than just photos, I saw eyes there – eyes that made words superfluous, eyes that were sad, funny, tearful, and joyful. Photographers caught these eyes in their cameras’ lenses, possibly not thinking about other eyes, the eyes of the viewer, which echoed what they saw at the exhibition. The exhibition is scheduled to end on October 26. It is the election day, when the vote should be held in my native land, Luhansk region as well. I saw it again in the halls of the Lavra Gallery. What did I feel at this photo exhibition? I felt shame. I was ashamed for my Luhansk region, which killed thousands of Ukrainians. What was I thinking about at the exhibition? I was thinking about a host of statements, canned slogans and electoral puppet theaters, all happening as boys who lost arms and legs look on. Is a whole pile of politicians’ statements worth one amputated hand of a soldier?

It so happened that the vote will be impossible to hold in regional centers of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. Of course, the war, and moreover, the occupation, have made it this way. Moreover, we do not know how the gangsters in power there will even hold their own elections, as the bullet is the only true ballot on the territory of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). In areas liberated from gangs and those they have simply failed to capture in Luhansk region, the election will be held in 5 districts out of 11. The Central Election Commission’s Chairman Mykhailo Okhendovsky said that the state would do everything possible to hold the vote on the maximum number of stations, provided that safety would be guaranteed for precinct election commissions and voters. Moreover, we already have experience of the presidential election on May 25, when the authorities managed to hold the vote in more than 12 percent of precincts. The militants had an “electoral” experience as well, proving that photocopying device, seal and machine gun are the key to be recognized by South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Former members of the Party of Regions (PoR), now opposition politicians, went two ways. Some of them renounced election to the Verkhovna Rada, distanced themselves from the Ukrainian political parties and meekly agreed to run for the DNR’s and LNR’s local councils. This category includes supporters of Oleksandr Yefremov and even those who managed to serve first Our Ukraine, then the Communists, and the PoR as well. They have one thing in common: they are all local magnates. They just physically cannot take away their main assets (including shopping centers and illegal mines), so they are forced to negotiate with the gangs. As a result, the large family of former PoR members and Communists has hedged their bets. They are now still in business both in Ukraine and in the occupied territories, Oleksii Mozgovy already threatened to kill Yefremov, who was once the permanent master of Luhansk region. This statement borders at sacrilege, but it is quite in line with “theomachist” statements by Igor Girkin, who has threatened Vladimir Putin with the International Criminal Court.

If the Ukrainians believe that the liberated territories of the east will give no support to the so-called “opposition” after all that happened, they are still wrong. There will be people who will say, “but still, they are ‘ours’ and not those ‘Banderites.’” It is another matter that the region has certainly changed. Most importantly, it is now tired, tired of waiting for the gangsters to start their offensive, and thus re-launch the hostilities, tired of explosions that echo somewhere close, very close. It is also thirsty for peace, and this thirst is now the top demand and the main element of the pre-election PR. The president has understood this right, so he is positioning himself as a peacemaker. It is understood by the “opposition” as well, so they try to use the same gimmick without pangs of conscience. Who now remembers the people behind the eastern Ukraine’s destabilization? Yes, there were some rallies in support of “friendship of peoples” and “bilingualism.” Yes, there were some calls to build up friendship with the Russians rather than with western Ukrainians. However, “zombiefied” Easterners themselves support the politicians who promoted these slogans. Therefore, the Communists and opposition politicians still retain their electorate. Moreover, the situation is so confused that sometimes local businessmen who helped the army and are absolutely patriotic people are willing to vouch for some former PoR members in front of the voters. Yes, it is a puppet theater. Given that patriotic redneck ways have to do with mentality more than with political preferences, some populist projects have successfully employed patriotic calls and promises of immediate solutions to steal electorate from the Communists as well as the nationalists. So, in particular, Oleh Liashko’s party stole lion’s share of grandmothers and housewives’ votes from parties of the Left. Liashko himself is seemingly right-leaning, but his smart, assault rifle-wielding looks made him the public’s darling back at the time of the presidential campaign, and he stayed this way. More generally, the market of election offers has become divided between peace and war parties, between those who soothe the public and those who call for radical action.

The fact that the president has signed into law the bill banning vote-buying has turned many people off the election as such. How it was before? Petro would distribute plastic bags for free, Vasyl would bring a few boxes, Mykola would pour some vodka – and everyone would go about agitating and soliciting support. When did a voter had as much weight as before the elections? Now, the festival is over, making going to the polls a futile exercise. Distribution of food packages in Rubizhne, using coupons and involving calls to vote for a Fatherland party candidate, has resulted in police filling out misdemeanor reports. People are ready to vote for anyone, provided that they are given enough vodka. They know that dog does not eat dog, and the election will not change the composition of the region’s elites. The only difference is that the president’s supporters have the process under their firm control and do everything to dominate the outcome of the vote. Some members of the People’s Front say that not even the PoR members tried to control the election so hard.

We are concerned about the issues that will face the Donbas after October 26, and yet today there are significant concerns about the normal course of elections in other regions, including Kharkiv. There is information that Russia is already sending its commandos to the Sloboda Ukraine [the historic province including Kharkiv region. – Ed.]. These soldiers are easily passing through checkpoints because they hold legitimate Ukrainian passports, the passports which the authorities failed to fully evacuate from passport offices of the cities captured by the enemy this May. We should also keep in mind statements by so-called “Prime Minister of the DNR” Oleksandr Zakharchenko on termination of the ceasefire as well as entry to the town of Starobeshevo, Donetsk oblast, of a Russian unit who are now stationed at the local House of Culture and kindergarten, among other places. All these details are digs at the election which looks bad enough already. This political puppet theater can well turn into a theater of bloody provocations. People have begun to realize that all these elections with empty promises and speculations first on “bilingualism” and now on calls for peace or for war, are not worth anything while the ones who provoked the bloody events are calling for peace, and the ones who cried about the “Banderite threat” are now safely walking the streets of “Banderite” cities. All this is happening at a time when 20-year-old boys cannot hug their mothers, because enemy mines have torn their hands off. This phantasmagoria of electoral farce is occurring against the backdrop of a child’s tearful eyes, looking from a photo displayed at Den’s exhibition.