Now that Putin dumped Firtash and bet on Tymoshenko, Yushchenko apparently can't let go of Firtash.
Here’s an interesting Yushchenko-Firtash v. Tymoshenko-Putin episode, featuring Ukraine’s elite counter-terrorist unit Alfa.
On Wednesday, Alfa stormed the Naftogaz head office in Kyiv to seize Tymoshenko’s gas agreements and to prevent the alleged theft of the so-called “technical gas.”
Background: It was the gas that Firtash had lost to Tymoshenko when he had lost Putin’s support in January. Then-customs chief Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, who has a business relationship with Firtash, refused to finalize the transaction, deeming it illegal. As a result, some 11 bcm of RosUkrEnergo’s gas have changed hands a few times between Naftogaz and Gazprom. Tymoshenko then fired Khoroshkovsky, and Yushchenko appointed him deputy director of the SBU.
Naturally, BYuT MPs came to the rescue of Naftogaz.
Female reporter: Why aren’t you letting MPs in?
MP Serhiy Vlasenko (BYuT): Please let an MP through, dear friend! Keep your hands off me! Please let me though! I’m neither touching you nor the documents, nor am I interfering with the investigation activities. I want to enter the premises of national stock company NAK Naftogaz of Ukraine.
Naftogaz supporters: Let’s go!
Female reporter: They’re gonna squash me!
Naftogaz supporters: An MP is under attack! Calm down! Hands off, bastard! Let go! Let go! Let go! Calm down! I’m an MP! Get your hands off me! Let go! Calm down! Let go! What are you thinking? You think you can...you can get away with this? Is this Firtash’s security service or Ukraine’s security service, huh??? You’ve become the security service of the criminal oligarch Firtash!!! Where’s your honor, officers? Where’s your honor? Take it off and don’t be shy! Take your hood off! Don’t be shy! Take your hood off! You should be defending the Motherland! Let go! Hands off! Take your mask off! Take your mask off! Now! Take your mask off! Do it! Take your mask off!
Alfa officer: He’s on duty. Don’t yell at him.
Naftogaz supporters: You just don’t get it, do you? I’m on duty, too. We’re all on duty here, buddy. Identify yourself, you thug! Identify yourself! Identify yourself!
Alfa officer: Did you see it? He hit me!
Naftogaz supporters: Hit you in your vest?
Alfa officer: What vest? In the legs!
Naftogaz supporters: Cut the circus!
Alfa officer: If a person is an MP, it doesn’t mean they can hit another person.
Naftogaz supporters: Nobody hit you! You’re a provocateur!
Reporter: Why are you letting them go? On what grounds?
Alfa officer: I’m gonna get a certificate of battery.
This footage reminds me of how Yanukovych’s Anticrisis coalition repelled Yushchenko’s and Tymoshenko’s efforts to oust prosecutor general Piskun in May 2007, as part of their campaign for a snap parliamentary election.
It also reminds me of how Yushchenko and his team clashed with members of the Kuchma-Yanukovych regime in the Central Election Commission in October 2004.
Times have changed.
Today, it's Yushchenko and Tymoshenko who are clashing with each other, with special interests on both sides.
On Thursday, Alfa went to Ukrtransgaz, the company that uses “technical gas” to facilitate gas transit to Europe, but failed to seize any documents.
Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/115448.html
Original sources:
http://inter.ua
http://tsn.ua
http://kanalukraina.tv
http://www.1tv.com.ua
http://stb.ua
http://5.ua
2 comments:
Judging by the video, the guys in Alfa:
1) were sent on a mission that they should not have been sent on - to grab documents (normally, a tactical assault team is trained and suited for other purposes)
2) didn't anticipate or plan their mission
3) are poorly trained
Thank goodness they didn't use their weapons.
But one would think that a tactical assault team wouldn't get put down, and de-masked, but a bunch of loudmouthed, overweight civilians.
Whoever sent the Alfa guys on this mission ought to be strung up.
In such operations, Alfa cannot use force against MPs, nor can it restrict their freedom of movement.
It’s not the first time that Alfa and other security forces had their hands tied, serving as punching bags for MPs.
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