“DPR”. Restoration of Donetsk oligarchs’ clan. Part 1

The elections to be held on the uncontrolled territories of Ukraine on October 18, 2015, as it was announced by Zakharchenko and other “Russian world” ideologists, caused considerable aversion among “DPR” supporters, more considerable than constant shelling, rocketing prices, and rhetoric of “republican wiseacres”.

Besides, various strata of the population of the occupied territories may be included into this group too – from common retired people and social workers who bear the financial burden of the “Russian world” to so-called “militiamen”.

The latter openly express their discontent with the formation and consolidation of the oligarchical and military clan which is replacing old “Donetsk elite” and “The Party of Regions” and is being formed on the blood of naïve people.

At the same time, the events are developing so quickly that the “republican elite” barely manages to adapt themselves to the developments. They still preserve their classical rhetoric: “we are an independent state”, but they do radically opposite things.

It is no more a secret in Donetsk as well as in other occupied towns that at Minsk talks “DPR” representatives are completing the process of “betraying” all the “Novorossia” ideas as a global project of “Russian people from Odesa to Kharkiv”.

It is evident.

It is a subtle question. “Republicans” were oriented exclusively to the idea of independent states which was every now and then reiterated by Zakharchenko for local people. He “fed” the people with promises that Mariupol would be seized very soon and, according to him, it would not be necessary to seize the city as its residents “were waiting for the liberators”.

And then, all of a sudden, there appeared declarations about ceasefire, withdrawal of weapons, release of captives, agreement on election process, and appeals to poor people with Moscow prices for food to vote for unknown candidates.

Zakharchenko himself was more or less known in Donetsk as a participant of the hostilities, but those candidates were not known to rank-and-file residents of Donetsk.

He understood that the positions had been distributed and the elections would be held (if they would be held) in the best Donetsk traditions of oligarchical clans which had already divided the region among themselves. 

However, there is one significant difference between the “old” and “new” traditions. In the past, locals were not interested in all such things, replacing the legal foundation of the process with the words “they are ours”.

Today the Donetsk “elite” in expensive foreign cars, after thousands of deaths, are treated as the enemy, the same enemy as the hated Ukrainian authorities, especially by local “militiamen” who will be deprived of their “jobs” because of the ceasefire.

As a result, a trite military-clan hierarchy is being created in “DPR” which controls the whole business sphere and does not solve the problem of returning “occupied” territories, but is busy selling meat and trading other stuff, orienting ideology to a pleasant “gesheft” – deal.

The result is the really growing discontent with the “power” which takes its “citizens” for idiots who will be silent and put the required sign in the ballots.

The above may be illustrated by some examples – three texts. One of them was published in a separatists’ public newspaper with a half a million circulation. A local woman expresses her disagreement with the events that are taking place. The other two are written by Henadiy Dubov, “the giant of the Russian world”, and by notorious Hirkin. They speak about the same things that Donetsk residents talk about on benches near their houses or in their kitchens today.

A local woman:

“The general mood of the besieged Donbas residents may be described as gloom, apathy, and disbelieve. It is offensive to see the people coming back, those who left the Donbas during the hard time, those who got information about bombing and desperate battles from online news and on TVs.

They have come back and go along the streets in expensive cars again, have a good time in restaurants, and express their hatred of DPR and its residents. There are a lot of former officials among those who have come back. They occupy their former positions in ministries, executive committees, and law enforcement agencies. They decorate their offices with the republic flags and find the way to get their dividends.

There are endless wails that the army is being dismissed, the volunteers are running away, and the front is bare. There are no clear guides, and we feel ourselves as people on a drifting ice floe with eternal frost at polar night around. And there are pensioners who beset banks and post offices and cannot get the money because there is scarce money supply. There are lots of reasons for gloom and depression”.

New service "Explain Ukraine". This is a daily mailout of three articles which were written about the situation in the Donbas by Donbas journalists and translated into English. Honest vision of people who work in the field is unbiased and fresh which is crucial in the world which is full of desinformation and propaganda. We try to share this vision in out daily mailout.  You can subscribe here.