Ukraine politics turns trashy as mood sours over slow pace of reforms
In this Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014 file photo, activists throw water at various lawmakers as they demonstrate to demand sanctions against Russia, during a protest opposite the parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine.(AP/File)
KIEV, Ukraine In Ukraine, trashing a politician isn't a metaphor. It's literal: Find a suspected shady official, grab him and throw him into a dumpster.
Online videos of several public figures receiving the treatment from gangs of rowdy activists have provoked both glee and revulsion.
The fad is part of a broader coarsening of the political climate in Ukraine as anger simmers over the snail's pace of reforms and persisting corruption since the overthrow in February of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
"People are seeing no real changes ... people see no fairness," said Maxim Latsyba, head of the social development program at the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research. "You look on social media and you will see all kinds of illustrations, photos and jokes about this. This means that people are supporting the trend."
With parliamentary elections coming Oct. 26, the mood seems best suited to favor the chances of nationalist rabble-rousers.
The first widely reported victim of the trash can punishment was Oleg Rudenko, a local official in the Black Sea port city of Odessa accused of extorting a $45,000 kickback. After cornering Rudenko, activists from the ferociously nationalist Right Sector movement pounced him and tipped him into a nearby dumpster.
Within days, the video of the incident became a sensation, as did the practice itself. National politicians all male so far have been targeted in more than a dozen reported copycat incidents.
Frustration is especially intense at perceived failures to revamp Ukraine's notoriously graft-ridden court system and police.
"We can find no fairness in the justice system. There are judges left over from Yanukovych's time. Nobody has fired them," Latsyba said.
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Ukraine politics turns trashy as mood sours over slow pace of reforms