By trying to bolster Ukraine, are nationalists hurting it?
| Kiev, Ukraine
When a thousand angry demonstrators claiming to be from the ultra-nationalist Right Sector group threatened to break down the door of Ukraine鈥檚 parliament last week, a well-known face from Kiev鈥檚 antigovernment protest movement wedged her small frame in front of the mob and demanded that they show restraint.
鈥淵ou idiots are going to give Putin just want he wants,鈥� screamed Tetyana Chernovil, an investigative journalist who now heads the government鈥檚 new anti-corruption committee. "Now he鈥檒l find the excuse he needs!"
Frustration with Ukraine鈥檚 radical nationalist groups has risen in recent weeks among the activists that demonstrated alongside them in anti-corruption protests for the last four months. Many fear that the groups' growing extremism is doing more harm than good at a time when Ukraine鈥檚 activists are trying to hold the deeply divided country together under the threat of Russian military action in the east and south.
鈥淲hile we are fighting against corruption, they are just fighting against the powers that be. Any power,鈥� says Oleh Matsekh, a Ukrainian civil society activists working with the Platforma Reform group, referring to Right Sector. Mr. Matsekh鈥檚 group is lobbying parliament for a package of anticorruption legislation reforms. "We鈥檙e fighting for something, and they are just fighting.鈥�
The crowd that night was demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, whom they accused of turning a blind eye to the murky killing the day before of one of the leaders of Right Sector, a paramilitary group of vigilantes formed during the early days of the antigovernment protests that began in Kiev late last November.
Although they pushed aside Ms. Chernovil 鈥� a prominent symbol of the Maidan protests after supporters of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych allegedly beat her in December 鈥� and attacked the doors, the crowd ultimately dispersed after smashing a few door panels.
But the event marked a new highwater mark for mainstream activists' growing distrust of the radical elements now dominating the movement, which has managed to oust a Moscow-favored president and usher in a pro-European interim government.
The next day, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov accused the Right Sector of trying to destabilize the country and of playing into the hands of Russia鈥檚 political operatives. The Kremlin, backed by state-controlled Russian media, has portrayed Kiev as dysfunctional and controlled by radical nationalists 鈥� implying the possibility that Russia might have to "intervene" to protect Russian-speakers in greater Ukraine as it did in Crimea.
Fears of Nazis
Russian accusations of Ukrainian nationalism threatening to destroy Slavic lands are nothing new, says Anton Shekhovtsov, a Ukrainian researcher at University College London, who has studied the country鈥檚 nationalist movement. Throughout history, when independence-minded ethnic Ukrainians spoke out against being enveloped by the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union, the Kremlin denounced them as anti-Russian fascists, Mr. Shekhovtsov says.
Sometimes the Russians were correct. One of the chief boogeymen for Ukraine's Russian speakers is Stepan Bandera, whose Ukrainian liberation army briefly sided with Nazi Germany in 1941 and declared Ukraine an independent state from Soviet Moscow.
The Nazis arrested Bandera several months later, and he spent the rest of the World War II in a concentration camp. But the fact that Bandera and his liberation army fought against Soviet soldiers became a lesson that Soviet schoolchildren were taught for decades, until independence in 1991.
Ukraine鈥檚 modern nationalist groups have, intentionally or not, played into that fear. They have adopted the Bandera movement鈥檚 flag of red and black, which can be seen waving over the tents in Kiev鈥檚 central square, or Maidan. They tried to storm parliament last week. And, a week before, one member of the nationalist political party Svoboda, or "Freedom," stormed into the offices of the Ukrainian First Channel and attacked the channel鈥檚 director, accusing him of airing pro-Russia images.
Most recently, a member of Right Sector was involved in a deadly gun battle in Kiev鈥檚 central street on March 31 鈥� an event which spurred the interim government to order law enforcement agencies to disarm paramilitary groups. Right Sector leaders have insisted that their weapons are all legally registered under the law.
Radicals
All this has activists worried that nationalists are leading the movement down the wrong path.
鈥淯nfortunately, these Right Sector boys are young and emotional, and they are often motivated by their souls and their love of their country. But they aren鈥檛 necessarily strategic,鈥� says Maksim Potapchuk, a Euromaidan activist from Donetsk. 鈥淚t鈥檚 unfortunate that these guys are focused more on posturing themselves as fighters.鈥�
Right Sector leaders say their mission is to defend an independent Ukraine, and the group is now set on becoming a viable political party. The head of the group, Dymitro Yarosh, last month declared his independent candidacy for Ukraine鈥檚 May 25 presidential election. But senior Right Sector members concede that their political ambitions can easily be overshadowed by the provocative ways of some of their members.
Though an estimated 40 percent of their ranks can be considered 鈥渧ery radical,鈥� says Taras Utsenko, a Right Sector senior representative, the group can't afford to lose them. 鈥淲e are aware that we need to control these boys, we also don鈥檛 want to lose them in case we need them for some action鈥� 鈥� particularly should Russia invade, he says. 鈥淲e need their energy.鈥�
And Right Sector is not ready to let the new government off the hook, he adds. Kiev 鈥渨ants to create us into some kind of radical side-story so they can get rid of us,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 difficult to dialogue with them as long as they want to just marginalize us. The Maidan has not yet succeeded in realizing its goal, which is to change the system, and that鈥檚 what we continue to fight for.鈥�
