The Party of Regions’ congress: glamor and flashbacks

The author was too young to witness the CPSU congresses, yet he has seen similar conventions numerous times, thanks to surviving video recordings from the Soviet era. It will perhaps be no exaggeration to say that the most recent (14th) Regions’ congress was a serious claim for the heritage of the USSR’s only party. The only difference was that this time around everything looked way more modern (small wonder, given that decades have passed) and glamorous. And it was not without a reason that there were “guest stars” at the event, representatives of United Russia and China’s Communist party.

The Regionals’ forums reveal an abysmal gap between government and the people, and it is deepening insanely fast. These forums leave an impression that the methods and rules of the Soviet-time Communist party were merely wrapped in the glam and chic of today’s high and mighty. The concentration of luxury cars, designer clothes, and precious watches per square meter of the International Exhibit Center in Kyiv exceeded all imaginable moral norms, in a country like this. In a word, everything looked very theatrical, both in terms of form and content. All this glamor clearly revealed one tendency: the Party of Regions (PoR) is putting in flashbacks.

I would like to adduce arguments to support this statement. The first: journalists were banned from the assembly hall. They were assigned a separate room with a screen, where they could do the broadcasting. By the way, before the congress actually began (with more than an hour’s delay), journalists were shown reels, united by a common theme of “bad previous regime, which had left the country in ruin.” That much we know. After two and a half years in power the PoR leadership never got rid of this rhetoric. Both honorary party leader Viktor Yanukovych and its formal head Mykola Azarov used the bigger part of their floor time to censure and accuse the Orange leadership. And of course, there were eulogies to “achievements” and “stability.” The only difference in their speeches was that the president spoke Ukrainian, while the prime minister stuck to Russian.

There was little difference in the form or message in the speeches of regional delegates. The audience livened up briefly, when the singer Taisia Povalii took the floor. Now she is number two in the PoR list of candidates, coming after Azarov. “I want to thank dear Mr. Yanukovych and Mr. Azarov for their concern for our art guild’s problems,” said Povalii. “The cultural branch has received great support from the incumbent government. The rapid development of our culture is another one in the row of our joint victories. I believe in you, Mr. Yanukovych, and in your team!” The singer had obvious difficulties while speaking, switching to Russian and halting several times. This could not but make the delegates grin. The decision to put Povalii on the list came as a surprise, which could not have become possible without the Guarantor’s personal decision.

This time dear Mr. Yanukovych received unusually many panegyrics. Each speaker pronounced his name tremulously, and thanked and praised him excessively. And this is the second argument: iron discipline and fear were almost palpable. Later on, Azarov’s words “the debate may be closed” only meant that Mr. Yanukovych needed to leave. The president retired. It was quite revealing that other guests began to file out one by one after him.

Now coming to the main thing, the list of candidates, which was the ultimate goal to hold the congress. Surprisingly, only a few minutes were devoted to this matter. Azarov put the lists of candidate MPs to the vote and asked the delegates to take a decision. They supported the proposed candidates. Yet who were they? This they knew not (perhaps, with a few privileged exceptions). Only the first five were announced at the congress. Besides Azarov and Povalii, it includes Serhii Tihipko (No.3), Andrii Kliuiev (No.4), and Oleksandr Yefremov (No.5). Afterwards journalists kept hunting for the Regionals to find out where the lists actually were. Eventually, some accosted Yefremov, who enlightened them on the following: “Prior to the congress we held a meeting of the party’s political council, where heads of all regional delegations were also present. The political council discussed all lists, each candidate, both for simple-majority constituencies and the united party list. Afterwards, the heads of the delegations discussed the lists with their delegates. The lists proper were handed out in the assembly hall during the vote. The party’s press service will let you know the list of candidates.”

Rank and file delegates were fearful and refused to discuss the lists. Later, the author chanced to witness a conversation between two delegates. In a nutshell it boiled down to the following: “Everything went fine, okay, yet it would have been good to have a look at the lists before, for we did not know what we actually voted for!”

Later, the lists were indeed made public. So, here they go: No.11. Dmytro Tabachnyk; No.12. Oleksandr Lavrynovych; No.13. Hanna Herman; No.14. Stanislav Skubashevsky; No.15. Anatolii Blyzniuk; No.16. Ihor Sharov; No.17. Volodymyr Oliinyk; No.18. Yan Tabachnyk; No.19. Volodymyr Makeienko; No.20. Elbrus Tedeiev; No.21. Mykhailo Chechetov; No.22. Viktor Yanukovych Jr.; No.23. Vitalii Khomutynnik; No.24. Yurii Ivaniushchenko; No.25. Svitlana Fabrykant; No.26. Yurii Voropaiev; No.27. Nestor Shufrych; No.28. Volodymyr Demydko; No.29. Yevhen Heller; No.30. Volodymyr Maltsev, etc., etc.

Surprisingly, the head of the Presidential Administration Serhii Liovochkin and first vice prime minister Valerii Khoroshkovsky were not on the list. Thus, the prospective speaker’s career for Liovochkin, prophesied by some, can be automatically dismissed.

There is another thing to consider. Strange as it may seem, yet Volodymyr Lytvyn theoretically still has a chance to be speaker again. Of course, supposing he is allowed to win the election in his simple-majority constituency in Zhytomyr oblast. As we know, an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada declined the speaker’s plea for retirement. And on July 31 Lytvyn signed the language bill. Significantly, three of his People’s party members are on the PoR list: Sharov, Zarubynsky, and Vashchuk. Anyone want to discuss ideas and principles?

“This testifies to the decay and gradual decline of Volodymyr Lytvyn’s People’s party,” said political scientist Volodymyr FESENKO in his commentary to The Day. “Over the recent years there has been a specific regularity in Ukrainian politics: a large party, especially one in power, devours its smaller allies. First it eats up their popularity ratings, and then engulfs themselves. By the way, the first wave of such mergers was registered before the parliamentary election of 2007. Now, on the eve of the parliamentary election of 2012, we can observe a similar phenomenon. I think, this is rather the result of negotiations with these individual party members, rather than with Lytvyn. Each of them pursues their own interests. The Party of Regions needs Zarubynsky as a renowned propagandist, Sharov is well known for his good organizational qualities. Likewise, Vashchuk is also well-known in her region. This matter was probably settled with regard to the situation around the language legislation.”

What does the absence of Liovochkin and Khoroshkovsky on the lists mean? Is it a sign of their becoming weaker?

“This is no sign of weakening. Nor can we speak of Akhmetov becoming weaker, although his name is not on the list either. It is merely a change of the configuration. The president is becoming a sort of major stake-holder in the PoR Close Corporation. Akhmetov delegates quite some of his men to the Party of Regions, through the list and simple-majority constituencies. It had been known before that Khoroshkovsky was not going to run for a seat in the parliament. He did not even intend to do so, as a matter of fact. I think it had been decided beforehand that some government officials would run, and others would not. It is a functional decision: current administration work has to get done, you cannot only tend elections.

“It seems to me that those are taking part in the election who traditionally were associated with the Party of Regions. See, the key figures were MPs of the recent convocations. Khoroshkovsky is not associated with the PoR. Liovochkin’s situation is different. There, indeed, was an intrigue and a lot of rumors. However, take into account the fact that Liovochkin is in no haste to retire as head of the Presidential Administration. Maybe, he is not at all enraptured at the prospects of becoming an MP. And there is yet another circumstance. By his status and political philosophy Liovochkin is a non-party or supra-party person. He is Kuchma’s pupil. And Kuchma’s political model was a non-party one. Liovochkin tends to such a model. Not to mention the fact that today in the PoR leadership and on their list there are people Liovochkin has controversies with. This might have also played a role. In the near perspective, Liovochkin will remain head of the Administration.”

What is your overall impression of the PoR congress?

“The very format of the congress, how everything was organized, shows that corrections must be made with regard to the Party of Regions’ political style. They should change their political stylistics, which reflects their Soviet past, as well as their post-communist and business experience. A combination of huge post-Soviet political get-togethers plus the element of Soviet-time traditions, with their clear hierarchy of speakers, and obsequious praising of their leaders – all of this was present in the speeches of PoR members. Keeping the delegates in the dark was due to the fact that the ultimate list was made up at the very last moment.

“There is another fact in favor of this version: this controversial story with Ivaniushchenko and his place on the list. At first Tihipko said that Akhmetov and Ivaniushchenko were not appearing on the list. Well, Akhmetov is still not there, while Ivaniushchenko has been entered. I think the reason for this is that Tihipko only saw the preliminary list of candidates. Ivaniushchenko’s name appeared at the last moment, due to the fact that he settled the matter at the top level. I cannot rule out that the list was amended on The Day of the actual congress, in the morning. Far from all candidates were acquainted with the list. This is typically a post-Soviet tradition. The situation is pretty much the same with other political powers: intrigues and backstage button-pressing.”