Yushchenko’s Guards Beat Up Elderly Orange Revolution Vet

Baba Paraska represents the Orange Revolution as Joe the Plumber represents the American middle class.

I last saw her on November 22, at the Holodomor commemoration service attended by President Yushchenko. On December 15, President Yushchenko came to lay flowers at the Monument to Vyacheslav Chornovil, the famous Rukh opposition leader. And so did Baba Paraska, except that she came uninvited. She’s now in the hospital — thanks to Yushchenko’s guards.

Her story epitomizes the plight of the Orange Revolution. It highlights the downslide of Yushchenko’s leadership: from the “People’s President” who mixed and mingled with Maidaners to one who shuns them.

Still, he has to live with increased freedom of the press, the salvage value of the Orange Revolution. Baba Paraska’s story gained wide publicity in the Ukrainian media.

Baba Paraska: Isn't it because of the presidential entourage that you don’t want to talk to me? I didn’t sell myself for money.

Narrator: Baba Paraska got beaten — by none other than the President’s security detail. The warrior woman is certain of that, as certain as she is of the ideals of Maidan.

Baba Paraska: So here I am standing. They all surrounded me real tight here. A car came and instantly they grabbed me by the shoulders and legs, and, folding me in half, they’re hauling me into the car, and from above, and mumbling and pummeling me with fists in the shoulders and kidneys. And from the back, one can’t see that the car has approached, and already they’re hitting me in the back and twisting me into a bow and throwing me into the car. Now I’m beaten and it’s been four years since they haven’t allowed me near him. I’m very upset about Na…because I don’t know if it’s Nasha Ukrayina or whatever that’s putting such entourage on me. I’ll tell the President what entourage…[incoherent]

Narrator: The President didn’t find any time at all for his fellow Maidaner. Yushchenko’s spokeswoman, Iryna Vannykova, did find the time: 2 minutes.

Iryna Vannikova: Hello?
Baba Paraska: Irusyu, good evening, sweetheart. This is Babka Paraska…

Iryna Vannikova: Good evening.
Baba Paraska: …calling.

Iryna Vannikova: Yes, please.
Baba Paraska: Do you hear me, sweetheart? Do you hear me? Hello? Hello? What’s up with her?

Narrator: Paraska is disappointed. She doesn’t have the courage to call the man himself, even though she says she does have the number. She dials Larysa Mudrak, chief of the presidential press service.

Larysa Mudrak: Don’t worry, don’t cry. Everything will be alright. Go get some rest and medical treatment. Everything will be alright. We’ll get the word out, we’ll file a complaint against the guards.

Baba Paraska: Don’t hang up on me, I’m begging you, because Irynka, the President’s secretary, hung up on me. They dumped me like a dog. Mr. President, did I really deserve this, darling?

A report in Segodnya quotes Baba Paraska as saying:

My back hurts, and so does something inside. It’s hard to get out of bed. Perhaps there’s a crack in a rib or some abdominal trauma. While being pulled away, I kept saying: Don’t beat me, I’m old enough to be your mother. But they just laughed and pummeled me with fists in the shoulders and kidneys, and then I felt that something cracked in my back.

I had an X-ray but the doctors aren’t telling anything. They only said that the treatment would take six weeks. I’m in a two-person ward. As for medications, they’ve mainly administered painkillers. I feel hurt and bitter to have been treated this way. I’m not a thug. The whole country knows me by face. I believe it’s a spit in the face of all who were at Maidan.

I believe she's right.

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/video
Original sources:
http://stb.ua
http://kanalukraina.tv
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/12/15/86085.htm
http://www.segodnya.ua/news/13047477.html

What Did I Miss? (Updated)

A number of major events took place during my 9-day blogging hiatus.

Patriarch Alexy died. Influential in Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church needs to find a successor for the job that traditionally involves theopolitics. Of the 27,942 parishes the ROC controls, 10,875 come from Ukraine (under the title of UOCMP).

Lytvyn in, Yanuk out. On Tuesday, the Rada elected Volodymyr Lytvyn speaker. The voting breakdown: PRU, 3 out 175; BYuT, 154 out of 156; NUNS, 40 out of 72; CPU, 27 out of 27; LyB, 20 out of 20. It’s unclear whether this de facto Lytvyn coalition will gain de jure status. Nor is it clear what cabinet roles, if any, will be awarded to the Communist Party, which jumped on the Lytvyn bandwagon. What’s clear is that big boy Yanukovych remains in the opposition ranks. (Three Regionalist dissenters supported Lytvyn, among them MP Zvyahilsky.) For Lytvyn, the appointment ends more than a year of fence-sitting and opens a fast track of crisis management window-dressing. The man and his party must show some results. Empty-handed, the Lytvyn Bloc stands little chance of being reelected in case Yushchenko unfreezes his snap parliamentary elections initiative. And by the way, Yushchenko has urged NUNS to abstain from the new coalition, blessed by Tymoshenko.

Gas deal stalls as debt lingers. Ukraine owes Russia $2.4B. Negotiations continue.

Baba Paraska got beaten. By Yushchenko’s security detail, as the main theory goes. Here, the iconic Orange Revolution vet tells a story of being assaulted by a group of men as she tried to get in touch with the President. The men grabbed her and hauled her into a car, hitting her in the shoulders and kidneys, Grandma Paraska, 69, says. Once the darling of Yushchenko and Orange patricians, she no longer gets the warm reception she got in the heyday of Maidan. After marketing himself as the “People’s President” in 2004, the Yushchenko of today rarely fraternizes with the “little Ukrainian,” the elixir of his presidency. Now that he pissed it all away, he obviously believes in the divine origin of power. The trouble is, the emperor has no clothes.

Hot water went off in Kyiv. It’s not just Russia who turns the heat off in winter. Starting Thursday, Kyivenergo, the local electricity company, turned off hot water in most Kyiv districts. Background: The local utility industry belongs to Kyivenergoholding, a company started in 2006 by the City Council and two Cyprus-registered partners: Densec Ltd, and Zarova Ltd (well represented in the City Council). Kyivenergoholding, in turn, owns three utility companies: Kyivgas, Kyivvodokanal, and Kyivenergo. Citing non-payment of Hr. 347M by Kyiv municipal authorities, Kyivenergo pulled the plug on most of the city, including about 200 HMOs, 300 kindergartens and 230 schools. You’d think Kyivites would take to the streets and put the water barons in hot water. Naw. So far, we have suffered in silence. President Yushchenko, Premier Tymoshenko and Mayor Chernovetsky have issued orders and made promises to restore hot water supplies. As of 10:20 Sunday morning (Kyiv time), the hot air in my apartment has yet to become hot water.

UPDATE
As of 11:54 Sunday morning, hot water has been restored.

Sources:
http://www3.pravda.com.ua/ru/news/2008/12/9/84978.htm
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/105091.html
http://kiev.pravda.com.ua/news/4941356e452c2/
http://ua.proua.com/news/2008/08/26/162639.html

Baba Paraska Showers Yushchenko With Birthday Wishes

…to live a lifetime of 100 years; to know no sorrow and, as they say, to have, in his home and in our Ukraine, prosperity and goodwill. What he promised to the people — I wish he would deliver that. I pray to God for this.

Paraska Korolyuk (aka Baba Paraska, or Grandma Paraska), a 69-year old activist easily recognized as the icon of the Orange Revolution, knows her way around the kitchen of Ukrainian politics. Both Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have repeatedly fraternized with her before the cameras, treating her as the ambassador of the Ukrainian people to the Ukrainian government.

Perhaps unwittingly, Baba Paraska adds a comic edge to the “our Ukraine” in her statement. (Does refer to Our Ukraine, the party, or to our Ukraine, the country?)

One can also detect a hint skepticism in her voice, as she reads out her wishlist. Now that President Yushchenko has left so many prayers unanswered, the people she represents find themselves wishing upon a star.

Video uploaded from:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/77218.html