When EuroMaidan protests were still in their infancy, 150 activists took to the streets of Toronto on Nov. 24, singing the Ukrainian anthem and giving interviews to local news stations. But 12 weeks later, on Feb. 6, the protest in Toronto was very different.
Some
20 activists came to the local headquarters of Deutsche Bank,
carrying banners and demanding that the bank stops providing services
to the businesses that belong to President Viktor Yanukovych, his
family and allies.
“Stop
laundering Yanukovych’s money,” one of their banners said.
“This
picket turned out to be one of the most vivid and meaningful,” the
action’s participant Antonina Kumka wrote on the event’s Facebook
page. “It had a specific goal and that goal has been achieved: the
bank will have to deal with the issue one way or the other, since it
is very unlikely that the media will just leave it at that.”
The
rally in Toronto was just one in a series that target the businesses
believed to be connected to the president and his loyal Party of
Regions. On Feb. 5, a group of about 30 protesters picketed the
offices of Podesta Group and Mercury/Clark & Weinstock, the two
Washington-based lobbyist firms that have contracts with European
Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based organization which
self-proclaimed aim is to “establish
good contacts between Ukrainian politicians and international civil
society organizations, opinion leaders and political
decision-makers,” which had been linked to Head of the President’s
Administration Andriy Klyuev.
The
organizations that get targeted typically feature in the online
project called “Yanukovych’s
Assets.” Started by the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Centre,
it profiles top officials and their business interests. Detailed
profiles of Yanukovych, his son Olexander, brothers Andriy and Serhiy
Klyuyev are already on the website, and it’s a work in progress.
“Activists
who picket the offices of the banks and financial institutions aim to
encourage them to check the transactions linked to Ukrainian
politically exposed persons,” says Tata Peklun of the
Anti-Corruption Action Centre. “If the source of money is proved
to be criminal, law enforcement institutions can block such
accounts. If the banks in Europe and the U.S. don’t have the
political will to refuse to profit off such dirty operations, then
there are also financial intelligence services, law enforcers and
parliaments.”
Another
way of targeting the financial interests of state officials is a
boycott of businesses belonging to the Party of Regions members. A
newly released Android app helps to identify products made by such
companies. In
Lviv, volunteers produced special stickers for the grocery stores
that don’t sell any of the listed goods.
