Spontaneous protests in Ukraine not to spread nationwide, but could turn violent, say political analysts

Kyiv, March 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The harnessing of negative public sentiments by politicians during the economic crisis to achieve politic goals may lead to unpredictable consequences, including violent protests, the director of the Open Policy Analytical Center, Ihor Zhdanov, has said.

He gave his view at a panel discussion entitled "the Results of the Political Week Estimated by Political Analysts and Experts," on Friday.

According to Zhdanov, the first peak of mass protest action in Ukraine will be in the spring or beginning of summer, and the second one in the pre-election period in the autumn.

"These actions will differ from those of the 90-es, from those of the 2004 Maidan [Orange Revolution] and from the mass rallies of 2007," he said.

All of the actions can be divided into three groups, Zhdanov said. First of all, there will be spontaneous actions by citizens in some. There will be also PR projects characterized by the attempts of young politicians, mostly, to head protest action s to promote their own political projects. Additionally, some protest actions will be organized by political parties. The Regions Party, in particular, has already announced its plans related to protest actions, Zhdanov said.

"The politicians have to understand that by undermining the situation they could plunge the country into a chaos, disorder and anarchy," he added.

According to Director of Policy and Legislative Programs at the Razumkov Centre for Economic and Political Studies Yuriy Yakimenko, protest actions aimed at putting pressure on the government will increase in the spring.

"There will be, in fact, such attempts, but the point is whether these actions… can be coordinated, centralized and aimed at the same objective – to achieve the dissolution of the parliament or early presidential elections," he added.

At the moment, there is no actual background for this, Yakimenko said.