Kolesnikov: “Banning the Party of Regions Is Like Banning the Sunrise”
MP Borys Kolesnikov, PRU: Banning the Party of Regions is like banning the sunrise. I’m telling this to my opponents upfront. I want to tell these pseudo-nat…pseudo-patriots that the Party of Regions — and the regions they represent — have made the biggest contribution to Ukraine’s independence. And they have secured the economic dependence [sic] of Ukraine…Ukraine. So here’s how it is: They’ve learned this anthem in the Ukrainian language, they put their hands on their hearts, or wallets, they sing this anthem — and that makes them the patriots. And the fact that the south and the east are working around the clock and are securing eco…economic independence — the Donetsk oblast alone accounts for 25 percent of the country’s GDP. That’s inde…the contribution to the country’s independence.
The Party of Regions has a progressive record of thought-provoking slips of the tongue. In 2004, it was presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych who spiced up the debates with “We must secure for our citizenry a state of feeling insecure.”
It didn’t stop there. Soon, the foot-in-mouth trajectory of Yanukovych’s rhetoric put a whole new spin on some of the big names in local poetry and industry.
So how does the word independence figure into the Ukrainian economy? Most of the export-oriented industry of southeastern Ukraine operates independently of domestic consumption.
Short of that, it’s one sort of dependence or another. The metals they pump for sale to China depend on cheap labor, cheap natural resources, cheap pollution, and “cheap” energy.
Kolesnikov's 25 percent figure for Donetsk oblast’s contribution to Ukraine’s GDP constitutes a steep decline from the “80 percent” urban legend that energizes every election campaign in the east. (The fact that Donbas did not pose as the sole donor of Ukraine's industrialization gets scant notice.)
Meanwhile, no such decline can be witnessed in the net worth of the local oligarchy. The sun never sets on the dons of Donbas.
Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/79308.html
2 comments:
Pretty funny, Taras!
In a way, I do feel for these guys. I know from first-hand experience how unforgiving a microphone (and recorder) can be when you have a slip of the tongue!
That being said, however, the ability to flush out Freudian slips is useful in gauging the character, as well as motiviation, of politicians. :-)
Pawlina, if I were to draw up my personal pardon list of Ukrainian politicians, the Party of Regions would need fantastic changes of character to qualify.
In the meantime, the public needs a fresh supply of such slips of the tongue to do all the thinking that needs to be done:)
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