Political technology centers Maidan
Two years ago, Kiev Maidan would not have been successful if it were not for the betrayal of a number of officials from the inner circle of President Viktor Yanukovych, in the mayoralty of the republican capital, and also in the command of the Internal Troops (VV) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. So many former police and special forces officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, who personally participated in the dramatic events of the end of 2013 - the beginning of 2014, believe. Their opinion is shared by the former Interior Minister, General Vitaly Zakharchenko, who is accused by the current authorities of Ukraine in organizing the murders of activists on Independence Square and whom the NVO correspondent managed to meet several days ago in Moscow.
“Some representatives from the inner circle of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich, in particular Sergey Levochkin, who was then the head of the presidential administration, were included in the coup,” said General Zakharchenko. According to him, the analysis of events on Independence and around it allows fixing the main technological nodes of the coup, in addition to the already known ones, such as the activity of the American Embassy and related NGOs, as well as the intrigues of high-ranking emissaries from the European Union countries.
SERGEY LEVOCHKIN AND “INTER” TV CHANNEL
One of the Ukrainian oligarchs Sergey Levochkin almost four years led the presidential administration of Ukraine. According to Vitaly Zakharchenko, he was considered one of the authorized representatives of the head of state.
The TV channel “Inter”, which is popular in the country, was controlled by Levochkin and was a serious information and political resource. Naturally, it was assumed that this media tool in a crisis situation would at least maintain loyalty to the head of state. However, in reality, everything turned out quite differently.
“It was journalists Levochkin from his Inter channel who were the first to break the clash of police with students on the 29 Maidan in November 2013 of the year and then with the Fifth Channel, oligarch Petro Poroshenko replicated this video under the brand #inframed, invented by the then deputy of the Supreme Council Inna Theological By the way, connected with oligarch Viktor Pinchuk, ”says Vitaly Zakharchenko.
The TV report about the clash of police officers with students caused a wide public response and became the first turning point in stories second Kiev Maidan. After that, hundreds of ordinary Kiev residents went to support the rally students, and the Maidan began to change not only quantitatively but also qualitatively.
Criminals, thieves in the law and guns "Glock"
However, among those who came to Maidan after 29 November, there were not quite ordinary people. As early as December 2013 of the year, according to General Zakharchenko, undercover intelligence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine recorded the appearance among protesters of a significant number of citizens who had previous convictions, had been in prison for various periods of time, as well as “representatives of several thieves in law who had long-standing industrial groups ". Soon after, the first gunshot appeared on Independence Square. weapon. According to Vitaliy Zakharchenko, “these were the Glock, CZ pistols, the Scorpion submachine guns, which were brought into the territory of Ukraine and then to Kiev across the border with Moldova.”
ALEXANDER POPOV, NEW YEAR TREE, GESTAPO AND MUNICIPAL POWER
One of the reasons for the success of the Maidan is its support from the municipal authorities of the Ukrainian capital. According to former Ukrainian policemen, if it were not for the “strange partnership” of the Kiev city leaders and the leaders of the Maidan, the rally with the participation of tens of thousands of people would not have been able to stand for about three months - almost the entire winter. After all, a real parallel urban infrastructure of Maidan was created - with the organization of food delivery, overnight stays, medical care, etc. Without the consent and support of the municipal authorities of Kiev, this would have been impossible to do. And perhaps the key role in this was played, according to Vitaliy Zakharchenko, the then head of the Kiev State City Administration, Alexander Popov.
“Popov was Levochkin’s closest assistant, his man. Therefore, the position and actions of the Kiev city authorities during the coup cannot be considered in isolation from the role of the head of the presidential administration, ”General Zakharchenko believes. - Popov and Levochkin, in particular, played a combination with the installation of a New Year tree on the Maidan, which was used by the organizers of the riots as a reason to stay on the square. I strongly opposed the installation of a Christmas tree on the Maidan. The head of the Kiev police Valery Karyak received an instruction from me not to allow the installation of the New Year tree at a time when the protesters were ready to leave the Maidan, but Popov, hiding behind Levochkin, ignored this ban.
It is also noteworthy that, according to the former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, it was in the basements of the Kiev city administration, which the militants of the radical group under the eloquent name of "Gestapo Maidan" first easily seized, then organized interrogation rooms. According to the information of the agent's police intelligence, they were interrogated and tortured by those whom the "Gestapo" considered enemies of the Maidan. According to one information, the backbone of the "Gestapo group" were former felons, according to another - right-wing activists.
Thus, during the Maidan in one building, the city hall of Kiev, and met city officials, and settled the militants. It was at the level of the Kiev municipal government that several nodes of a political project came together, which eventually turned into a coup d'état.
STOPPED PERSONS
Cowardice or betrayal - this is how the behavior of some heads of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the days of February 18 of February 21 ––––––––––––––––––––
“February 18 began a decisive assault on the Maidan’s barricades by militiamen, special forces soldiers of the Interior Ministry and Internal Troops,” says General Zakharchenko. - We received real-time information that the organizers of the riots did not expect such an onslaught from the security forces. The radicals first began to retreat, and then completely ran from the police attacking the barricades. But then something incredible happened ... ".
Incredible was the fact that suddenly the Interior Ministry officers (“Berkut” and BB) stopped. For what reason it happened, from whom this team came, still remains a mystery.
“I called alternately both General Shuliak (commander of the explosives) and the head of the Kiev Central Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (who directly led the police in the capital), demanded to continue to attack, especially since we were separated from the success in minutes - activists of the Maidan later told us that they counted hold out under the police onslaught of no more than half an hour. And then they had to either run or surrender. However, in the midst of a successful attack, police and special forces stopped, - says General Vitaly Zakharchenko. - I categorically ordered to continue the offensive, otherwise it will choke. But Shuliak told me that the fighters of the "Golden Eagle" stopped, and the head of the Kiev Central Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - that the internal troops did not go forward. They said that the fighters were tired and they needed rest, that they had run out of noise-noise grenades ... In a word, as time went on, our offensive was choking. While Shulyak and I figured out the reasons for stopping the fighters, the radicals came to their senses and set fire to the barricades on the Maidan. ”
The fire, which quickly engulfed huge barricades (the tires were mostly burning), made the further advance of the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the soldiers of the explosive forces impossible. Independence was saved and soon went on the counter.
The second dramatic event occurred on February 21, when the coup in Kiev had actually won, and the question arose for Viktor Yanukovych: what to do next?
Vitaly Zakharchenko is sure that the main role in the victory of Maidan was played by traitors in power. Photo from www.mvs.gov.ua
“I phoned the president and reported on the upcoming assault on the buildings of the government quarter,” says General Zakharchenko. - He asked what was my opinion, what should we do now, when the Maidan extends its control over Kiev. I said that I consider it necessary for the president to leave the capital to the Donbass, where he will head the legal government. I also proposed to send units of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to which it was simply dangerous to remain in the capital - the radicals would certainly have begun to take revenge on them, as well as the police and the Berkut special forces. In addition, the agreement signed between the president and the diplomats of European countries, proposed the withdrawal of troops from the capital. Yanukovych accepted my proposal and ordered to organize the shipment of explosives to Donetsk. I, in turn, asked him to duplicate the teams directly to Shulyak and the head of the Kiev Central Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, since they already directly reported to the president on the steps being taken. ”
According to General Zakharchenko, he coordinated with the commander-in-chief of the Internal Troops, General Shulyak and the head of the Kiev Central Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, an operation to withdraw his units and military equipment from Kiev. Since the hunt for the Minister of the Interior had already been announced, it was impossible to go out with the troops of Zakharchenko - we would have to fight through the battles. In addition, it was necessary to prepare a bridgehead for the troops in the Donbass. Therefore, the head of the Interior Ministry traveled to Donetsk on his own, separately from the units of the explosives.
“After coordinating the details of the operation with Shulyak and making sure that the column of explosives began to move from Kiev, I turned off the mobile phone so that it was impossible to track my movements,” said Vitaly Zakharchenko. - When I turned on the phone in the Dnipropetrovsk region and called Shuliak, there was no connection. It was possible to contact the deputy commander of the explosives, who reported that at his order the convoy of explosives and armored vehicles returned to Kiev. He substantiated his decision by saying that the Maidan’s militants headed by Chumak from the Opposition Opposition Party came to the commander-in-chief of the MVD and ordered to return the troops — otherwise they promised to burn the building. Similar teams began to come from my deputies, who remained in Kiev. As a result, the "Berkut" also could not get out of Kiev. It was clear that this was frank betrayal. ”
Viktor Yanukovych, who arrived to the south-east of Ukraine, ended up without explosive units loyal to him. There was no one to defend the ousted president.
The opinion of other participants in the events is even more categorical. "The February double betrayal of General Shulyak made the victory of the Maidan possible, led to the success of the coup," said one of the former officers of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to NVO.
Perhaps this assessment is too hard and categorical. However, there is no doubt - and this is one of the technological lessons of the second Kiev Maidan - that the success of the coup d'état depends not only on the determination of its organizers and participants, but also on cowardice or betrayal of senior commanders of police units who directly control operations to suppress the insurgency. In the end, not only their immediate superiors and the country's top leaders, but also subordinates who honestly carry out the order, become hostages of them.
TELEVISION, INTERNET, FOOTBALL FANS
According to General Zakharchenko, shortly after his appointment to the post of Interior Minister of Ukraine, in 2011, he created a special department of strategic analysis and forecasting in the Ministry. His analysts began studying the television and Internet space of Ukraine, the phenomenon of football fans and civic activity.
“Before the Euromaidan all over Ukraine, various NGOs held numerous events - conferences, round tables, etc., related to the language theme, social, ethnic and religious issues, etc.,” says General Zakharchenko. - During these events, public opinion was studied, resonant topics were sounded. Then we did not know for what it is done. Of course, the assumptions were different, but there was no understanding that all this would one day form a mosaic of a hard coup d’état. ”
Analysts of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2012 year drew attention to the close connection of the space of civic activism with social networks. “In May, 2012 of the year, we recorded 14,65 million active Internet users in Ukraine, of which more than 7 million were inclined to protest against the authorities. At the end of 2013, these two phenomena — civil society activists and social networks — crossed on the Maidan, ”says Vitaly Zakharchenko.
Television today, the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine compares with a nuclear bomb: “The political effect of a television exposure is comparable in terms of the striking force with an atomic explosion. While Inter TV channels (owners Dmitry Firtash and Sergey Levochkin), 1 + 1 (owner Igor Kolomoisky), media structures of Renat Akhmetov and Viktor Pinchuk, other TV channels owned by oligarchs were loyal to the president, their powerful social effect was not obvious. However, we were immediately convinced of this when these oligarchs and TV channels at one moment stopped providing assistance to the president. ”
Vitaliy Zakharchenko called football fan clubs another powerful political technology tool controlled by Ukrainian oligarchs: “The oligarchs owned not only football clubs, but also security companies and fan associations associated with them. During the coup, at the time of the weakening of the state, these structures came to the forefront, having accumulated the resource of the right-wing radicals as well. ”
A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE
Vitaliy Zakharchenko believes that another repetition of the Maidan in Kiev under certain socio-economic and political conditions is quite possible. In his opinion, the coup d'état, as a political technology that has been developed on the ground, remains an effective method of influencing power.
According to the ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, political technologies can be applied in several post-Soviet states: “There have already been such attempts in Armenia and Moldova. I think they are quite possible in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan. ”
For Ukraine itself, General Zakharchenko considers a dangerous prospect of resuscitation of the war in the Donbass: “Kiev needs war, war will be, the only question is when exactly it will begin.”
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