Crimea: support for renewed union is hot (03/29/98)

GAUGING THE MOOD OF UKRAINE'S VOTERS

ON THE EVE OF ELECTIONS

Crimea: support for renewed union is hot

by Yarema Bachynsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

SYMFEROPOL - The word on the streets of this gray Crimean city of 400,000 is that Communists and other forces that advocate renewal of any sort of union with Russia, Belarus and other former soviet republics at best, or at least with "fraternal" Russia, are "hot, hot, hot."

The southern Ukrainian peninsula's two-thirds ethnic Russian population is in no mood to listen to Kyiv's prescriptions, while the repatriated Crimean Tatar population, comprising some 250,000 of Crimea's 2.5 million souls has hit the streets complaining of alleged disenfranchisement by Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada. All in all, just days before the March 29 elections there's a witches brew in the Crimean pot.

A series of chats with local residents and consultations with local journalists, among them Oleh Khomenok of IREX Promedia, a U.S. Agency for International Development project aimed at supporting independent media outlets, has painted a picture of strong support for the Communist Party of Ukraine, which advocates re-nationalization of privatized property, restoration of central economic planning and reconstitution of the Soviet Union, and has support especially among pensioners, the unemployed, underemployed blue-collar workers and others longing for a return to the past. Equally strong is a party known as Soyuz, which, though not an advocate of socialism, demands a union of the "fraternal nations" of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (in that order). Both parties actively call for the impeachment of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, a view echoed by some on the street.

Crimean Tatars are divided between those who are ready to support Rukh (an electoral alliance that had been concluded between Rukh leader Viacheslav Chornovil and Tatar Mejlis leader Mustafa Jemilev), and others who are ready to vote for the Party of Muslims of Ukraine.

Crimean residents of a national democratic orientation, for the most part ethnic Ukrainians, seem ready to split their vote along traditional lines, with Rukh and the National Front in the lead. Volodymyr Yavorivsky's centrist NEP bloc (composed of the Democratic Party of Ukraine and local supporters, and allied with Crimean Parliament Chairman Antolii Hrytsenko) may also garner votes from reform-minded voters of all ethnic groups.

This last group, however, may suffer due to an anti-crime sweep in the last two weeks, by the militia and the Security Service of Ukraine, which has resulted in the arrest of some key NEP supporters. According to local television and press sources, over 1,200 suspected organized crime figures have been arrested including dozens of deputies and candidates for political office. Volodymyr Sheviov, leader of the Party of Economic Revival of Crimea, is among those for whom an arrest warrant has been issued.

Here then is a sample from the vox populi of Crimea.

Aliona Ryzhkova, 20, Russian, student: "I think the elections are a waste, because nothing will change here, anyway. If I go to vote, I think I will vote against them all. I can do that, right?"
Rustem Jafirev, 24, Crimean Tatar, driver: "I will vote for Rukh because Jemilev has said that they are our best hope for Kyiv hearing our Tatar voices. But I think that Kyiv had better start listening to our needs, which includes giving citizenship to thousands of my people here unfairly kept from voting. This is our land."
Volodymyr Volkhov, 61, Russian, pensioner: "I am for the Communists. I grew up in the Soviet Union, in Russia. These last years have been extremely hard for me, my children, grandchildren. Independent Ukraine has given us nothing but corruption, banditry and unpaid wages. My father fought to defend the Soviet Union from fascism, now I am struggling to defend my people from Ukrainian national-fascism."
Maryna Bakhtiarova, 37, Russian, postal clerk: "I will vote for Soyuz, because they are our best hope. I do not think the Communists can take us out of this crisis that was caused because Ukraine left its brother Slavic nations. The Communists will not make life better for us, but neither can Kyiv and Kuchma. Soyuz, and union with Russia and Belarus, will lift our economy and make us whole again.
Olena Prokhorenko, 44, Ukrainian, unemployed mother of two: "I think I will vote for the Communists. We need to restore the ties we once had with our people in what is now the ex-Soviet Union. We need to join so that the West will not colonize us, and so that the bandits are put into prison. I want my children to live safely and well in a big and proud nation. But I am not sure that even the Communists can deliver on all their promises. It is hard to believe in anyone these days."
Dmytro Poiedyntsev, 38, Russian, entrepreneur: "I am not sure yet if I will vote. But if I do go to the polls, I will vote for Soyuz, because Crimea, and Ukraine too, needs Russia to fix its economy. I do not believe that Kuchma or anyone in Kyiv is capable of running Ukraine separately from Russia. And besides, Russians and Ukrainians are like members of one family. We should be together, not apart."
Sasha Apkarian, 42, Armenian, wholesaler: "I will vote, if I have time, probably for NEP. I thought about Soyuz, but there really is no point for a renewed union, because it is all talk and no action. I need politicians who understand my economic situation and do not waste their time and mine talking about abstract politics. I want them to work for me. But who knows what the election will bring. I don't. Do you?"
Adam Dombrovsky, 73, Ukrainian, pensioner: "Rukh, or maybe the National Front. I am sick and tired of the Russians telling us what to do. I am tired of Kuchma not putting things in order here. I didn't vote for him last time [1994 presidential elections] and won't vote for him next year. I thought of voting for the Social Democrats - United, but will not because of Kravchuk, who is much, much worse than Marchuk. I don't want to support him. But if Marchuk runs next year, maybe I will vote for him. You know, in seven years of independence lots of things have broken down in Ukraine, and here in Crimea especially. But as I say, 'If you break it, you have to fix it.' I did not break it, but I want to help fix it."
Oleksander (refused to give last name), 40, Russian, former Black Sea Fleet officer: "I would shoot the lot of them and rebuild the Soviet Union. Only the Communists can restore our great Russian nation." [When this writer pointed out that Crimea is part of Ukraine, he was warned that he also should be shot for saying this.] "Go back to America and leave us alone."