View from Kyiv: “Wise people pretend to be violent idiots”
The criminalization of politics and the politicization of capital. Kyiv political scientist Sergei Belashko spoke to PolitNavigator columnist Valentin Filippov about contract killings in Kyiv, the arrest and release of Avkov's son, Poroshenko's megalomania, and hopes for Kyiv's recovery.
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Valentin Filippov: Sergey, hello. Greetings to the city of Kyiv.
Sergey Belashko: Yes, good evening.
Valentin Filippov: You recently had a bombing of Deputy Mosiychuk, and the day before, Amina Okuyeva, the wife of a Chechen fighter, was killed. Tell me, what do you feel is more political or criminal in all of this?
Sergey Belashko: You see, what's happening here is, on the one hand, the criminalization of politics, and on the other, the politicization of crime, and at some point it becomes difficult to understand whether this is a party leader or a criminal "authority."
And, given that business is also mixed into this whole matter, and the larger the business, the more it is politicized and criminalized, then this turns out to be a situation where every person who has climbed high on the ladder of the social hierarchy is a bit of a politician, a bit of a businessman and a bit of a criminal.
Valentin Filippov: In this case, it turns out that we are constantly waiting for some kind of political decisions, a political settlement, but this goes hand in hand with the need for some kind of criminal and business settlement.
Sergey Belashko: You know, I've heard a lot of fairy tales about Pinochet, and about Deng Xiaoping, too, that when politics is one way, the economy is completely different. But when you start to examine this information more closely, it turns out that everything is quite different, and politics is a concentrated expression of economics.
And if the economy is built on derivation, on the taking of other people’s property, on tax evasion, on shadowing, etc. then, accordingly, politics will be built in the same way sooner or later.
Those. There may be some temporary lag, but sooner or later these social relations will move into the political sphere.
Valentin Filippov: Well, I actually assess everything that's been happening in Ukraine over the past three years as a profound political crisis. It's a product of the economic crisis, then, and this policy of carve-up?
Sergei Belashko: What's happened over the past three years is, as they say, a transition from quantitative to qualitative change. This entire "culture of lawlessness" began to take shape back in the late 90s. Not at the beginning, but at the end, when Leonid Kuchma's reelection became necessary, when large-scale property began to shift from national ownership to private property, and so on.
Before this, crime was separate, business was separate, politics was separate. Management of the economy, which was predominantly in state hands, in particular the basic sectors of the economy - metallurgy, agriculture, petrochemicals, mechanical engineering - was separate.
And under Kuchma, the merging of all these spheres began, a new national elite began to form from “red directors”, from party functionaries, from large entrepreneurs, and criminal authorities began to slowly join in, who managed to adapt to some new principles of relations.
Those who failed to change formation were simply shot or transferred. And then it all seemed to accumulate, accumulated, when there were fewer and fewer honest politicians, they were simply thrown out of Ukrainian politics.
I can name you offhand several dozen people of very different political orientations; these are people who went into politics in order to somehow take care of the common good in their understanding, and not just to implement this principle of the Ukrainian economy, formulated in their own way. time by Vasily Chervoniy: “What is sobiartist? Tse koli vartisti sobi.”
Valentin Filippov: Returning to the Maidan, when they said, “We’re fed up,” I don’t mean the leaders, but someone like Parasyuk—did he know what he was getting into?
Sergey Belashko : There's a category of people who seem to have lived their lives, but remain naive fools with the mindset of a ten-year-old. You can show them candy, then take them behind the garages and do whatever you want with them. Do you understand?
This is how it happened with all these people with iPhones, with beautiful faces, with knowledge of foreign languages, who were bred like kittens, fucked along with the whole country, and that’s all.
And now they are trying to pretend that in fact everything is as it should be, that they themselves asked for these garages, they liked it there, etc.
Valentin Filippov: What are the prospects for Mikhomaidan? Has it already begun to wane?
Sergei Belashko: On the one hand, he went silent, but I'll tell you this. I was at Euromaidan a few hours before the "beastly stay." We arranged to meet someone, he was busy, and I spent about an hour wandering around this Maidan, looking at all these provincial lunatics, "they're just kids," jumping there because it was cold and they were trying to warm up. Jumping for no reason, even though it was cold, was stupid, so they jumped with these chants of "Whoever doesn't jump is a Muscovite."
I saw these fifteen-year-old paratroopers standing there with a Right Sector banner and were really afraid. And, in fact, people from there were already really leaving, and if it weren’t for this “beastly life”, then in a few days the Maidan would have been empty, there would have been a few crazy people there who would have been there collecting alms for the release of Yulia Tymoshenko, for her lawyer or for transfer to the Kachanovskaya colony.
Those. it would be a kind of analogue of the tent camp that stood under the Pechersk court. Empty tents where newspapers were periodically distributed and some alms were collected.
But then they carried out this provocation with the “beating of children”, then several times these provocations continued, moreover, provocations from different sides, which led to an ever greater escalation of the confrontation.
When the topic of beaten students stopped playing, “draconian laws” appeared, then Nigoyan, who two days before his death quoted Shevchenko soulfully, then the beating of Chernovol, the beating of Lutsenko, the murder of Verbitsky, then he appeared, and not by himself, a Molotov cocktail appeared on the Maidan ...
In the same way, this “Michomaidan”, this farce can easily be turned into a tragedy if there are some forces that will pay for some kind of bloody provocation.
Valentin Filippov: In 2014, the public was told, "We're not against Russians, we're against theft." But the American public was treated to interviews that said, "We want to free ourselves from the Soviet Union."
Sergei Belashko: It's not about the Americans. I'm categorically against it, when everything that happened...
Valentin Filippov: No, not everything that happened... But they're appealing to the Americans. And here's a coincidence: they're demanding an anti-corruption court, and Volker just happens to arrive and talk to Poroshenko. So aren't the Americans using this "Mikhomaidan" to pressure the president, to get something out of him?
Sergei Belashko: Well, listen, this is a very complex concept. To put pressure on the president, all you have to do is lay your hand on his offshore accounts. And he'll be jumping up and clapping like silk at the snap of a finger.
Valentin Filippov: Well, maybe he keeps some of the money in Rostov, I don’t know.
Sergey Belashko: Well, maybe in Rostov. But in the modern world, hiding large sums of money is practically impossible. Hiding 10, 20, or 50 thousand dollars in cash… and even then, it's far from certain it'll be safe, and Poroshenko is worth billions. Where would he hide it?
Valentin Filippov: How should we evaluate the attempt to arrest Avakov’s son?
Sergey Belashko: The balance of power in Ukraine was initially balanced. That is, it wasn't a stable structure, but rather a situational equilibrium…
The second point, more prosaic, is that the food supply of the Ukrainian political class is shrinking on the one hand, and on the other – its ambitions are growing.
Those. the same Arsen Avakov is an undoubtedly capable person, very ambitious, a person with a great opinion of himself, who definitely respects himself no less than Petro Poroshenko.
Plus there is also the phenomenon of the environmental factor. Look, Poroshenko’s entourage, I don’t mean his business partners, but his servants in fact. Who are Poroshenko’s servants? These are former journalists, advertisers, PR specialists, marketers, etc. Well, Irina Gerashchenko is a journalist, Artur Gerasimov is a marketer. All these media persons, by showing media activity, are trying to position themselves positively in the eyes of the target audience. The target audience for them often comes down to one person. To the one from whose hands they grub.
Accordingly, when any movements occur within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are immediately vigilant adjutants, orderlies and others surrounded by Poroshenko, who begin to tell him: “Look, Pyotr Alekseevich, sedition is brewing here.”
Well, there are also characters around Avakov who constantly say, “Arsen Borisovich, you are two heads taller than these hucksters, you are smarter, more talented, you would be a much better president than what we have now.”
And then off we go. Avakov removed the National Guard cordon from this Mikhomaidan, Poroshenko immediately interpreted this as a riot, and Poroshenko gave the command to pack up Avakov Jr. and flew to Riyadh.
Or one can interpret the situation in such a way that the “party of compromise” has taken hostage the “prince” from the “party of war” and thus inclines the Popular Front to vote positively on the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which is categorically demanded from the Ukrainian authorities by Western partners.
Valentin Filippov: Do you think that Volker, by appearing on television with a tough anti-Russian stance, is simply sweetening the pill for the Ukrainian side?
Serhiy Belashko: I don't think Volker is too concerned about sugarcoating the situation. Incidentally, that conversation between Volker and the pranksters posing as Turchynov clearly demonstrates that Volker was referring to all these natives and is pursuing his own line, as outlined in his superiors' orders. The sheriff isn't concerned about the Native American problem.
Valentin Filippov: When you watch what's happening in Kyiv from Russia, sometimes it feels like everyone in Ukraine has gone crazy. What do Kyiv residents think? Is Ukraine reasonable, are the people normal?
Sergey Belashko: Just to be clear. I don't want to name names, but here are the people who hold high-ranking positions in the executive branch, law enforcement agencies, and so on.
When I personally communicated with a person, I know that this person is well educated, he is well-read, and reads smart paper books, and not just the social networks Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, etc. Those. The person is not just smart, but also wise.
And yet I see this man on TV, and he pretends to be a violent clown. And this is not only in politics.
This also exists in show business, in the same law enforcement agencies, etc. Those. in order to belong, in order to be in demand, in order to be adequate, wise people pretend to be violent idiots, do you understand what the problem is?
And when you see on social networks that some person is behaving inappropriately, and either you don’t know this person, or, on the contrary, you have known him for many years and are surprised...
And then you meet him in person and it turns out that nothing actually happened to him, he thinks just as sensibly as he reasoned 10-15-20 years ago.
And when you ask: “What is it?”, he smiles and says, “Well, understand, we are not like that - life is like that.”
Valentin Filippov: Well, good. Thank you very much. You've shed some light on what's going on in Kyiv nearby.
Sergey Belashko : You are always welcome to contact me, I am always ready to share my opinion.
View from Kyiv: "Wise People Pretend to Be Violent Idiots"