front and center in ukraine race

8/12/2019 Front and Center in Ukraine Race

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Front and Center in Ukraine Race,

a Leader of the Far RightByANDREW E. KRAMERMARCH 11, 2014Photo

Dmytro Yarosh, shown last month in Independence Square in Kiev, is running for president. CreditDavidMdzinarishvili/ReutersContinue reading the main story

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KIEV, Ukraine During the Independence Square protests, Dmytro Yaroshmade a name for himself as an expert with firebombs. Now, just weeks later,
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Mr. Yarosh, leader of the right-wing coalition known as Right Sector, says he isrunning for president.

When Russias politicized state media talk about the neo-fascists and anti-Semites who pulled off what the Kremlin calls a coup in Kiev and are nowsupposedly threatening Russians in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, they havemen like Mr. Yarosh in mind.But who these men really are and what they stand for, outside the caricaturesin the Russian medias fun-house mirror, are not always clear.Other than his unstinting nationalism, penchant for secrecy and leadershiprole in the street fighting, little is publicly known of Mr. Yarosh, beyond that heis 42, a graduate of a teachers college and a man who has been active inUkraines once-fringe right-wing politics for most of his life.In one of his first public appearances over the weekend, Mr. Yarosh, who hasthe buzz cut and tightly coiled mannerisms of a military man, arrived at a hotelconference room in a scrum of bodyguards with pistols, all dressed in black.Newly appointed to the position of deputy director of Ukraines securitycouncil, he is clearly riding the popularity of the street fighters to stake a claimto a role in the political future of Ukraine.


Ukraine Crisis in Maps

Mr. Yarosh has hinted at a role for his group in balancing the influence of alongtime player in Ukrainian politics, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, the former prime

minister who emerged from prison after the fall of the old government withmembers of her political party, Fatherland, already holding the positions ofacting president and prime minister.Before the protests, the nationalist party Svoboda had occupied the nationalistniche to the right of Ms. Tymoshenko. But Svoboda and Fatherland are nowallied. Mr. Yaroshs ambitions, observers of Ukrainian politics say, fall wellshort of winning a national election but do include supplanting Svoboda as theleading right-wing party.Mr. Yaroshs bid for office, political commentators here say, is best understoodas the latest maneuver in the ceaseless churn and infighting among theleadership of western Ukrainian nationalist groups White Hammer, Patriotsof Ukraine and the Trident of Stepan Bandera, the organization Mr. Yaroshhelped found in the early 1990s. Setting this contest, between Svoboda and

Right Sector, apart are the extraordinarily high geopolitical stakes today in acrisis the British foreign minister called the worst in Europe of the 21stcentury.A lot of people fear that Maidan brought to power the old establishment, said

Vadim Karasev, director of the Institute of Global Strategy, a policy researchorganization in Kiev, referring to the protest site. In that atmosphere, headded, Mr. Yarosh has a distinct advantage: He popped out of the square likea jack-in-the-box.In outlining his platform on Saturday, Mr. Yarosh made a conciliatory openingstatement in Russian and then described a political agenda that includes
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reimposing Ukrainian as the countrys official language, signing a tradeagreement with the European Union but not seeking full membership, andinstituting a top-to-bottom reform of the Interior Ministry. Mr. Yarosh calledfor a European embargo on Russian oil and gas purchases.


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In contrast, the interim government led by the acting president, Oleksandr V.Turchynov of the Fatherland party, has vetoed a law that would haveeliminated Russian as a second official language and is striving to work withthe existing police force, domestic intelligence agency personnel and armyrather than immediately instituting sweeping changes.For the interim government, Right Sector has been invaluable in securingpower, and potentially acting as a deterrent against any Russian interventionin the rest of Ukraine. On the other hand, the group has been named by theKremlin as a justification for its military intervention.

Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on Saturday that theinterim government, to our huge regret, is dependent on the radicalnationalists who seized power in an armed attack.Mr. Lavrov said, Effectively, there is no state control whatsoever over publicorder, and the music is dictated by the so-called Right Sector, which operates

by the methods of terror and intimidation.As Right Sector has made the transition into politics, its leadership has movedfrom an occupied post office into rooms at a hotel near Independence Square.The group still keeps stocks of beer bottles filled with gasoline on the sidewalkoutside, even though there are no longer any riot police officers to fight.They are very theatrical, Per Anders Rudling, an expert on Ukrainianextremist ideologies at Lund University in Sweden, said of the westernUkrainian nationalists. They have a lot of flags and parades. Hard-lineimagery plays well in the west of the country, he said. They dont have

political correctness.The Svoboda party, meanwhile, has moderated, and did not openly endorsethe tactic of throwing firebombs when street fighting began in January.Svoboda was founded in 1991 under the name the Socialist-Nationalist Party ofUkraine, with a symbol that resembled a swastika. Its leader, Oleg Tyagnibok,met Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday and in December appearedonstage with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. Svoboda holds 37seats in Parliament.
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Even with the widespread admiration for its role in toppling the loathedformer president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, Right Sector is not likely to win morethan about 5 percent in any national election, political experts say.Recent polls show that Petro Poroshenko, an oligarch and owner of the Roshenconfectionary company, leading in the presidential race, with the electionscheduled for May 25. He is followed by the former champion boxer VitaliKlitschko, Ms. Tymoshenko and Serhei Tihipko, a former chairman of thenational bank.

At his news conference, Mr. Yarosh took pains to reach out to Russianspeakers and to convey a message of moderation. He said that Right Sector

was against xenophobia and against anti-Semitism, and that about 40percent of its members are native speakers of Russian, and many of those fromeastern Ukraine, just as he is.On Independence Square, which remains symbolically important for the newgovernment, Right Sector is raising its profile, changing the character of theplaza. Black-clad men walk about with pistols. On Tuesday, several dozen suchactivists pushed into a City Council meeting in small city near Kiev,Borodyanka, to support, they said, their candidate for mayor in a vote.Right Sector, Mr. Yarosh said, was set up as a platform for revolutionary

young people, and is only now evolving into a political organization. One of its

constituent groups, the Ukrainian Nationalist Assembly, is already a politicalparty and could form the kernel of a future party, though its platform would berewritten, he said.Mr. Yarosh said Right Sector was not about to disband its paramilitary units.He said they were needed to maintain a deterrent against Russia, whileMoscow says they are used to maintain control over the interim government

by using street muscle to intimidate lawmakers.We are against witch hunts, Mr. Yarosh said. Right Sector has not beaten upany members of Parliament.

front and center in ukraine race

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