A leaked phone call between Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet and the EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton became a political bombshell. Paet told baroness about the conversation with one of the Maidan civil leaders and proved that snipers killed both “Berkut” police and internal forces and protesters in the center of Kiev. Foreign minister came to the conclusion that murders were organized by new power in Kiev rather than Viktor Yanukovych.
“I remember very well how we were waiting for any news about the support from free and democratic world during the bloody January, 1991. It gave us hope that we are not forgotten. This very message I heard from the singer Ruslana who asked us, deputies, to go to Kiev and be at the Maidan altogether. The destiny of Europe is creating there today”. It is a usual text in the context of western liberal view on the Ukrainian revolution. In this case, the announcement is made by Sandra Kalniete (“Edinstvo” party), Latvian deputy of Europarliament. “Free world”, “democratic society” and, for sure, “peaceful protest” – these are the main categories that Europe used to describe the bloody events in the Kiev historic center.
The rebels haven’t said anything about “peaceful protest” since January – just ridiculous. This protest stopped being peaceful since 1st December, when “Right sector” militants started to assault the President Administration using a tractor with chains. For a long time the “Maidan self-defense” conception was working: “peaceful protest” is defending itself from the troops of “bloody regime”. When Maidan had attacked and led to the flight of Yanukovych, hypocrisy was finally discarded and even a certain revolutionary proud has taken place: “This is the way these gangs should be drive out!”
But the record of the conversation between Paet and Ashton, published on 5th March, destroys both western image of “peaceful democratic protest” and romantic picture of “good knights” of revolution for the internal Ukrainian mass consumption. The reality revealed to be dirtier and less attractive.
PAET:
…And it is very unpleasant…Olga told about it too…According to all evidences we have, people who were killed by snipers, from both sides, police and people from the street… The same snipers were shooting, killing people from both sides.
ASHTON:
Yes…It’s terrible.
PAET:
She showed me photos and said that it seems to her as a doctor that it is the same style.
ASHTON:
Yes.
PAET:
…about the same type of bullets. And, what is more unsettling, the new coalition don’t want to investigate the accurate circumstances of what have happened. The understanding that it’s not Yanukovych, but somebody from the new coalition who stands behind the snipers is becoming more and more obvious.
Does it turn out that the Maidan organizers - the new ruling coalition and Ukrainian provisional government, are behind the sniper murders in the center of Kiev? Why did they act like that? Did they add fuel to the fire of Ukrainian revolution to make the public rage grow stronger? It seems like that.
What is to be done by “free world”, where the countries have already accepted the new Ukrainian “democratic government”? It is so democratic, European and moderate…killing their own supporters to come to power, and do it quick?
“The actions of present power (Yanukovych - RuBaltic.Ru) are considered as criminal concerning their people” told the Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė before the seizure of power in Kiev. Grybauskaitė also commented the EU decisions about sanctions and said that they are insufficient. “It is not enough. Since there are no sanctions at the moment…I will support the strongest measures concerning these authorities”. She was talking about sanctions against Yanukovych and his people. Now, if the new power in Kiev agrees to conduct a fair investigation and the words of Estonian minister happen to be confirmed, will Grybauskaitė still stand for the strongest sanctions concerning “these authorities”?
The Lithuanian minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius very actively expressed his opinion about sanctions against the scattering Ukrainian power. The head of Lithuanian diplomacy made no secret of the fact that he didn’t support the policy of “showing concern” about the Ukrainian situation, which was widespread in Europe. He asked for taking measures as well. “They could be different. First of all, it is a restriction concerning visa regime and entering the Schengen zone. It could also be freezing of some people’s bank accounts… We can put an embargo on weapon supply” said Linkevičius in Brussels.
Talking about weapons, embargo on its supply to Ukraine indeed is a good thing to do. Far-right Maidan militants aren’t short of weapons, according to recent announcements of the other Baltic politician – the Latvian minister on Affairs of self-government and regional policy Einārs Cilinskis (“National unity” party) who got into the “Right sector” headquarters because of his ideological likeness to far-right politicians.
“Half of the revolutionaries have weapons, but they don’t use it outside of the headquarters building in case not to look nasty. They even created a special tactics to dismiss the police and national security – they provoke “Berkut” and take away weapon, helmets and shields. Captured material goes to headquarters, where they count all stuff and give it out to the participants…” ingenuously described the minister while talking to the Latvian media. It looked like he forgot that he’d been there to congratulate the victorious peaceful protest.
Nevertheless, Latvian prime-minister Laimdota Straujuma sent a letter of congratulation to the new Ukrainian prime-minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. All European countries simultaneously greeted the new Ukrainian power. In the same simultaneous way they also made Yanukovych responsible for the bloodshed.
“We strongly recommend Yanukovych to withdraw security forces from the Kiev center and respect the right to have peaceful protest” is said in the text published on the Barak Obama administration site on 20th February, on the most bloody day of battles in the Ukrainian capital. Is it a diplomatic hypocrisy, or the American special services so incompetent and can only bug the phone calls without any possibility to give to the USA authorities objective information about what is happening and who shoots in the center of Kiev? Is it possible that those Ukrainian forces, which brought the snipers to a fighting positions, were not alone?
“The snipers very likely were not hired by the Maidan leaders. Coming of that group was possible only with a permission of one of the 5-6 states.
The snipers needed guarantees of their security and free departure from Kiev. Maidan leaders couldn’t guarantee them all that” thinks Vitaliy Tretyakov, political scientist and member of the Presidium of the Council on foreign and defense policy of Russia.
It seems like starry-eyed European citizen is going to know a lot of new facts about “peaceful and democratic” Ukrainian revolution. In addition to the sensational statement about snipers, Estonian minister told baroness, therefore he told it us as well, a lot of interesting things.
For example, the fact that armed people was beating the deputy right in front of the building. The fact that the level of public confidence to the new government is incredibly low. The fact that those, who are in the government now, have dirty past, so they don’t differ so much from the “overthrown” ones. The fact that people on Maidan don’t believe them and they are going to stand on their ground, press on the power and ask for the real reforms.
Meanwhile, Urmas Paet destroyed the revolutionary romance of Maidan as “peaceful protest of free people”. It was not on purpose, but still it required a lot of courage to confirm his words, which deny the whole western informational policy of the last few months. Maybe this courage will lead to the end of Paet’s career. In this case it will create an interesting precedent – he will go down in diplomatic history as an honest man.
Translated by Elizaveta Boldova.
