It wasn’t because they didn’t first visit him that
day. Some 1,000 cars first came within 300 meters of President Viktor
Yanukovych’s palatial estate in a northern Kyiv suburb. Medvedchuk was second
or third on the list of a roving
demonstration on wheels.
Or maybe he realizes he doesn’t have the right to be
there too?
Nevertheless, he blew
his top over the gate being damaged and spray-painted by whom he called “vandals.”
It’s as if the protesters forgot that they were on the threshold of Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s close friend and leader of a pro-Kremlin civil society group.
The latter, in a show of organizational transparency, placed light box
advertisements throughout Kyiv showing the prevention of Ukraine signing an Association
Agreement with the European Union being checked off on a to-do list.
So naturally, Medvedchuk can’t be intimidated and isn’t
scared of the protester tactics.
Referring to the three opposition leaders of Arseniy
Yatseniuk, Vitali Klitschko and Oleh Tyahnybok, he said: “To build your own
country, you don’t need to break down my gate, and you don’t even have to hit
your head with it. It’s enough to put your thinking cap on or you could forget
about your political careers.”
That was only the beginning of his rant.
Ex-President Leonid Kuchma’s former chief-of-staff
said he will lawfully fight for “our Orthodox-Slavic values” without describing
what actually constitutes those values. He also promised to fight for the
interests of people “for whom vandalism, chaos, cynicism, unrest and lies are
alien…”
Yet the coup de grace of his online tirade came
towards the end. Medvedchuk triumphantly proclaimed that he also knows how to
do battle.
“They (the opposition leaders) want to wage war? I
also know how (to fight). We have enough strength and capabilities to stand up
for our views and convictions. And we shall do this,” he concluded.
Perhaps, he could start by
showing the public how he privatized his residence.
Ukrainska Pravda’s Serhiy
Leshchenko published
on his Facebook page written testimony dating to August 2005 by Mykhailo
Chechetov who headed the state property fund during Kuchma’s last years as
president (and when Viktor Yanukovych was prime minister).
In it, Chechetov states that
Medvedchuk illegally became the owner of two
state-owned summer homes (dachas) in Pushcha Vodytsia, a neighborhood in
northwestern Kyiv, the same place of abode where protesters came yesterday. The current Party of Regions lawmaker stated that under
pressure from Medvedchuk he was forced to privatize the two residential buildings.
It appears the taxpaying
protesters had every right to be at his residence on Dec. 29, while Medvedchuk’s
residential rights should be under the spotlight.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
