Ukraine Journal: The Fire That Burns Within

Ukraine Journal: The Fire That Burns Within

  

It was Tuesday, December 5, 2017.  I had been in Kiev for less than 24 hours when I heard that one of the country’s leading opposition figures was about to be arrested by government security forces.  I found a live internet feed showing what was unfolding in the city center and it didn’t look good.  Mikhail Saakashvili, an opposition leader (and former president of Georgia), was yelling from the rooftop of the building he lives in about how Ukraine’s president was a thief, had stolen the Maidan Revolution away from the people to line his own pockets and how the people needed to mobilize on the main square to protest for his impeachment.  This was happening while the security forces were breaking into his apartment below to arrest him.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  

I’ve always liked Saakashvili.  I met him a couple times and think he is an honest person who is driven by a desire to create positive change in the region.  Also, I visited Georgia during his second presidential term (after the Rose Revolution swept him to power) and saw firsthand how his government reformed the country in ways no one had thought possible.  He succeeded in dramatically reducing overwhelming bureaucracy and rampant corruption, while modernizing and ushering the country into an economic and investment boom.  Seeing what he managed to pull off there, especially in such a short period of time, was truly a generational game changer for the country.

After Ukraine’s recent Maidan Revolution, Saakashvili was offered, and subsequently accepted, a government position to clean up the notoriously corrupt Odessa region.  To do this, he had to take Ukrainian citizenship and give up his Georgian citizenship.  Unfortunately, his anti-corruption work only hit roadblocks, usually put there by the Kiev government, who by that time had started benefiting from the old schemes.  Despite the revolution, Ukraine’s current president, Poroshenko, has shown himself to be more intent on keeping the previous corruption laden status quo instead of actually improving the country for the masses, but arresting Saakashvili for calling him out and moving into opposition seemed a bit over the top.  Also, Saakashvili really couldn’t do anything else (unless he embraced corruption), as he has no other place to go.  I believe he sees himself as a Simon Bolivar type of character, which I don’t think is a bad thing.

Within an hour of watching the news, Saako was arrested and thrown into a police van.  However, the shenanigans on the roof delayed everything and the authorities didn’t plan the arrest well to begin with (or that it would be broadcast live on television) and by the time that they finally got him into the van, his supporters had flooded the city center.  The police van that was taking him away was almost immediately surrounded by approximately a thousand people and they weren’t letting it move.  A short time and a lot of tear gas later, his teary-eyed supporters managed to free him from police custody.  They started calling for protesters to come to Maidan (the main square).   Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Lutsenko, who doesn’t maintain the trust or support of the people, then came on television and said that Saakashvili appeared to be working with Russian intelligence in an attempt to stage a coup, which is just so fantastically ridiculous it insults anyone who knows anything about the real situation.  

Saako taken into custody in van

Demonstrators trying to free him getting pepper sprayed

As I was digesting all this, I got a call from a friend who said the police were shutting down the roads leading to the city center to prevent more people from coming in and then my Facebook Messenger was somehow frozen- I couldn’t send or receive messages.  I was still fighting jet lag and was planning on taking a nap, but after all this, I couldn’t ignore the call to action.  I quickly headed to the metro not knowing if it was still running or, if it was, what would happen once I got to the city center.  

As I was on the train, a strange feeling started rising within me.  I’d been to countless protests in Ukraine over the years and participated in the last two revolutions where the people managed to throw Yanukovich out of power both times, but I couldn’t believe that the Ukrainians were still so ready to spring into action in the hope of installing a righteous government to lead them forward.  Ukrainians truly are a different breed of Slav and they continually surprise and impress me with this moral ballast that they have somehow maintained despite endless decades of being repressed under extreme political corruption. 

The irony of course is that these amiable traits of the common man do not seem to be carried by those who reach any level of political power in the country.  I find it as amazing as it is sad that Ukraine’s political leaders, especially after the violence seen throughout the last revolution and while the country is still at war with Russia, continue to ignore the people’s desire for just some basic competence and justice in how the country is managed.

Cops/Security Forces surrounding the Parliament

When I exited the metro station and started walking down to the Maidan it was now snowing.  I realized I was underdressed for a long stand on the street and needed, at the very least, a hat.  When I got to Maidan, the epicenter of the previous two revolutions, the snow was getting stronger and the temperature seemed to be dropping, but the square was unexpectedly quiet.  I bought a hat from a kiosk for the equivilant of four bucks and decided to walk to the Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) building, where a protest tent city had been set up days earlier in response to an ongoing government crackdown on the independent anti-corruption bureau.  As I approached, I kept passing more and more cops and special forces.  Yeah, I was getting into the hot zone now.   

"Ukraine Without Oligarchs!"

When I got to the Parliament the entire building was surrounded by police and military troops and they were at least 5-10 deep- a huge number were present.  The government was clearly on edge.  I walked into the tent city by going through some barricades and I passed a sign that read: “Ukraine without Oligarchs!” and another that said, “Putin needs to have his teeth punched out”.  I liked that one.  There were garbage cans burning and speeches being made from a stage on the side of the building.  I made my way into the crowd.   The snow had continued picking up and it was heavy now and the wind made it hard to see.  Unfortunately, I had missed Saakashvili’s post-arrest speech and since he left after it, many of the protesters had also faded away.  I heard that there were at least a few thousand people there for the speech, but now only a few hundred remained.  I stayed for a bit taking it all in and then, after some time, when the government pulled back some of the excessive troops on hand, I decided to head out myself.  

“Putin needs to have his teeth punched out”

As I walked back to the metro I wondered if America would mobilize this fast if Hillary was arrested on bogus charges to distract from Trump’s illegal actions or if Mueller was fired in a hissy fit as the noose tightens around the president and his inner circle.   I doubted it (but I still hope that I’m wrong).  I’ve been to a handful of anti-Trump rallies and none of them have had the right energy, urgency or critical mass (except for the Women’s March, but that was of a different nature).  I’ve found that protests that succeed in forcing real change need to be rigid, almost militant, and disruptive and unending.  I think America has currently forgotten this, but watching the Ukrainians again preparing and ready for a sustained attack on their wanton political system gives me hope that all humans may have a similar type of fire burning within and as America continues its slide into a moral mess and existential crisis, something will be triggered that inspires us to take a similar stand to protect our country and values.  

Americans have more faith in our institutions, which breeds a laziness to action, and conversely, the Ukrainians have little faith in their institutions, so the street is one of the only levers that they have to enact political change, but with such morally reprehensible and dangerous behavior being shown almost every day in the current White House and Congress to no real reaction, I’m disappointed in our inability to rise up and say enough is enough- even child molestation doesn’t seem to cross a line any longer.  What a strange, strange world this is, but I have hope that a tipping point is on the near horizon and this week in Ukraine has strengthened this belief….

Tent City in front of Parliament 

Just before I decided to head out

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