Analysts say events in Kyiv on May 18 had negative impact on position of authorities
Kyiv, May 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukrainian political analysts believe that the current authorities have lost due to the incident related to attacks on journalists during Party of Regions and opposition rallies in Kyiv on May 18.
"The use of force or conflicts, whether they are organized by the government or the opposition or become the consequence of the activities of any third forces, will be placed with full responsibility onto the shoulders of the authorities. And all that happens by the time of the [Eastern Partnership] summit in Vilnius this November will the subject of special attention from the embassies of the EU and other Western countries," Director of the Berta Communications Company Taras Berezovets said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
He said that the reaction by Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to a protest by journalists at a government meeting shows that "the authorities have no answers and strategy in such a situation."
"This situation was created by 'black PR' men who work in close contact with people from the presidential administration, who were behind the emergence of this 'clownish' armored vehicle escorted by a traffic police car. All this has created an extremely unfavorable field for the position of the authorities," Berezovets said.
"Today it all turned into a struggle within the authorities, because this conflict is currently most often used to harm the career of incumbent Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko… But today all of these developments are widely used not just to remove the interior minister from his post. It's a more global operation. Zakharchenko was considered one of the possible candidates for the post of Serhiy Liovochkin, head of the presidential administration," the analyst said.
President of the Open Policy Analytical Center Ihor Zhdanov described the government's attitude to the incident with reporters outside InterContinental Hotel as cynical. He said that journalists should help make as transparent as possible the activity of a newly created parliamentary temporary commission to investigate the attacks on journalists in Kyiv on May 18.
.Zhdanov said that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych should also disclose his position on the incident.
"His silence is absolutely unclear to me. I wonder what instructions he gave to investigate the incident and what his political position on this issue is like," he said.
The expert predicted that a future presidential campaign in 2015 would be held amid confrontation, provocation and total lie. As an example, he cited the fact that Party of Regions representatives first stressed the need to investigate attacks on journalists during rallies on May 18, but then started accusing the opposition of the incident.
Director of Ukraine's Institute of Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov noted that the Rise Up, Ukraine! campaign had not shaken the foundations of the current political regime in Ukraine, but changed the political atmosphere in the country.
"We can say that political reality has slightly changed. Opposition rallies and counter-rallies by the authorities have led to the fact that various sectors of society, especially journalists, are currently becoming more active in defending their rights," he said.
As reported, a conflict erupted between representatives of the opposition and a group of unidentified men on Velyka Zhytomyrska Street in Kyiv at about 1420 on May 18, which later turned into a brawl. The young men began throwing water bottles and stones.
Several people, including Channel 5 journalist Olha Snitsarchuk and Kommersant photographer Vlad Sodel, were injured in the incident.
The scuffle took place during the opposition's Rise Up, Ukraine! campaign (on Sofiyska Square) and a Party of Regions rally (on European Square). The incident occurred outside the building of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's office in Kyiv.