when pigs fly
nationalists rally in rainy kyiv
Last week, I mentioned that members of the National Militia were prepared to use force while monitoring Ukraine’s election. This weekend, the group and its allies rallied in central Kyiv to protest President Poroshenko and his inner circle, accused of enriching themselves through an ongoing corruption scandal in the defense sector.
(Nationalists gather on Kyiv’s Independence Square, or Maidan.)
The protestors called Poroshenko a “pig farmer” for surrounding himself with corrupt officials; a recent investigation by Ukrainian outlet Bihus.Info claims that the son of Ukraine’s deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council enriched himself and his associates to the tune of $9.2 million by smuggling military equipment from Russia into Ukraine and selling it to the state at highly inflated prices.
A driving rain — and perhaps, an aversion to associating with organizations the U.S. State Department last week labeled “nationalist hate groups” — meant that the protest was not particularly well attended. After speeches on the Maidan, several hundred protestors marched up to the Presidential Administration. While the Angry Birds theme song played, they hurled stuffed pigs towards the building and the rows of police protecting it. It was an absurd sight, and one meant to make a splash on social media and distract from the more sinister and violent brand of the group, which has destroyed Roma camps, regularly clashed with police, and intimidated officials.
When the pigs stopped flying, the sentiment of the rally turned somber as the protestors — with their hands hands on their hearts and fists in the air — recited the “Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist.”
I left the protest with a chill, and it wasn’t just the weather. The thought of this group working as election monitors is perhaps my biggest worry as Ukraine heads towards Election Day on March 31.
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