Special again! Another Akhmet-sarai being built in Donbass?

The main reason for what is happening right now in Donbass is a specially cultivated feeling of their exclusivity by the local population and the so-called "elite". "We're special here. We feed everyone. Do not come here from other regions. We are the landlords here and we will set our rules" – Akhmetov’s media broadcasted into the minds of Donetsk authorities and inhabitants. That is what led to the fact that as Leonid Kuchma said: "Kyiv had never had central power in Donetsk".

It would seem that the owners of the “life in a new way” should draw conclusions and counteract the transformation of what was left of the Ukrainian Donbass into another specific principality. But…

On February 7, I had a chance to hear all the same, already half-forgotten, rhetoric. The head of National Police Department in Donetsk region Vyacheslav Abroskin hold a 40-minute press conference, during which he several times mentioned the peculiarity of the Donetsk police and was indignant that outsiders (although they all fought in the Donbass) came to decide on the work of Akhmetov and Yanukovych’s power plants in the region.

"Let us return to our blockade. The people are from different regions of Ukraine. For some reason, our residents do not participate in it. Why, when people are starving in Avdiivka and others are deprived of gas for 3 years in Marinka, Krasnogorivka, someone comes here and tells how someone should live here? Who gave them the right to make a decision whether a resident of the Donetsk region should live here or not? Nobody has this right"- Abroskin was outraged. 

Obviously, the last question was addressed to the MP, founder and first commander of the battalion Donbass Semen Semenchenko. Really, who is he, this deputy? He did not restore gas supply to Marinka (although it is an issue of local executive authorities) but prevents the Donetsk oligarchs from trading with terrorists and supportimg them financially. By the way, the latter fact was admitted even by the Donetsk ex-governor S.Taruta...

The readers have surely realized that we are talking about the ATO veterans, holding trade blockade against terrorists, whom the staff of the Donetsk police led by Vyacheslav Abroskin beat on February 6, releasing the 7 buses with titushky and employees of Kurakhivskiy combined heat and power plant, who wanted to raise the blockade of the railway crossing.

"I opened the doors of a few buses and saw there men and women, who said they were residents of Kurakhovo and settlements of Volnovakha district, whose family members work at Kurakhivskiy combined heat and power plant. They were going to come directly to the blocked railway crossing. I understand their concerns about a permanent place of work and salary so that they could somehow survive here, in the Donetsk region", - Abroskin said.

These benevolent words do not quite coincide with the video, where in one of the buses (probably, the general did not open that particular door) there were only men, who for some reason hid their faces.

Explaining the fact that the column of "Kurakhovo residents" was going to actually provoke the ATO veterans (how were they going to raise the blockade of the railway crossing otherwise?), accompanied by a police car, Abroskin said that he knew in advance about the column and of the intention of the blockade participants to detain it. “That is why the buses were accompanied by a police car to ensure law and order on the highway between Konstantynivka and Bakhmut". Although the general himself, accompanied by the police squad "accidentally" happened to be on the scene. "I became a participant of these events by chance".

It turns out that the police knew about the planned provocation, but had not prevented it, and even took part in it. Moreover, the video that recorded a conflict between the Deputy Semenchenko and general Abroskin shows that the police officer provokes Semenchenko to the emotional actions with his smile.

If, in the opinion of Abroskin, the railway blocking is more legal than trade with the terrorists, then why do not the police themselves make efforts for deblocking? Instead it accompanied seven buses with titushky and "employees of Kurakhivskiy combined heat and power plant" to the place of the possible scuffle. In other words, it facilitated a civil conflict. But veterans had stopped the column before.

"I want to note that it is not interesting for the police of the Donetsk region were it titushky or not…".

In other words, titushky, within the meaning of the General of police - it is normal. But the People's Deputy that interferes with the business of Akhmetov is a threat to "stability."

- "I think the time when people who are trying to destabilize the situation in the Donetsk oblast (and is it stable now, in understanding of Abroskin? – auth.) answer will come. Today you are the People's Deputy, and tomorrow you can be not the People's Deputy. And criminal proceeding can always get you a year later, five or ten years later…".

It is curious that if the General of police, in fact, threatens the People's Deputy Semenchenko who called Abroskin a "scoundrel", he has no complaints yet (!) to the deputy Parasyuk who "behaved with dignity when talking to me". A tirade addressed to him is more similar to the blackmail than to the threat…

- "I met the People's Deputy Volodymyr Parasyuk in Avdiivka just a few days ago. It seemed to me that he is quite intelligent person after a conversation with him. I think he is not going to make loud statements about coming out with the weapons on the street. I can comment on the conflict which was with Parasyuk at this checkpoint near Chasiv Yar there again. Many people say, "here is a criminal proceeding". I can say that indeed, there was the fact, according to the police officer, who says that the People's Deputy struck him in the chest. After that he was admitted to the hospital where he is now. We carry out an inspection on the given fact now, – how much it all corresponds and whether it actually took place. So I have no complaints to the People's Deputy Parasyuk. He behaved with dignity when talking to me in Avdiivka. Of course, I cannot say how the situation will continue to develop"…

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"Whose side are we on?" – the newly appointed Head of the Donetsk Regional Police Department was asked at the meeting in a narrow circle of his deputies in March 2014. – We are for SCM" – the General (allegedly) answered. This story was told to the author by one of the participants of the meeting, who, by the way, takes a high position in the system of the MIA now. The fact that it is more than likely true is confirmed by the subsequent action, or rather inaction, of the Donetsk police in regard to those who "have risen against the Kiev junta."

The General is already different. And Donetsk is different. But the police, again, in fact, act only in the interests of Akhmetov. And the Donbass, in the understanding of the local people in power, is still not the part of the country, but their territory, where "foreigners" should not go. It is no coincidence that the "Kiev" Governor Zhebrivskyi sits in Kramatorsk and the Donetsk police are based in Mariupol where the local authorities and large industrial enterprises are controlled by Akhmetov...

In other words, the whole Ukraine fights there, but the juice will get those who have decided that has such a right. And these are the same old, who got its juice for 20 years and get it now…

Serhiy Harmash, OstroV