"Re-organisation of the Ukrainian space", or Putin's agents in Ukraine

The disgraceful publication of "There is no Ukraine" (later renamed into "Is There One Ukraine?"), where a controversial British historian (and fraudster) Orlando Figes calls for the division of Ukraine, is only only one example of an increasing trend toward implanting an idea that the division of Ukraine may solve some political problems. Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions discussed this idea already in 2004, during the "Orange revolution", when they held the Severodonetsk convention - a major separatist move of Yanukovych’s supporters aimed at the creation of the Sout-East Ukrainian Autonomous Republic. Present at that convention was then Moscow's Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov.

Why would Russian authorities be interested in the division of Ukraine if they want to incorporate it in its Eurasian Union? Russian fascist Aleksandr Dugin (whom I already mentioned earlier and will refer to again) believes that Ukraine is too diverse to be incorporated in its entirety in the Russian geopolitical project. In his Foundations of Geopolitics, where he describes the Russia-led Eurasian integration, Dugin writes:

The sovereignty of Ukraine represents such a negative phenomenon for Russian geopolitics that it can, in principle, easily provoke a military conflict. [...] Ukraine as an independent state with some territorial ambitions constitutes an enormous threat to the whole Eurasia, and without the solution of the Ukrainian problem, it is meaningless to talk about the contitental geopolitics. [...] Considering the fact that a simple intergration of Moscow with Kyiv is impossible and will not result in a stable geopolitical structure [...], Moscow should get actively involved in the re-organisation of the Ukrainian space in accordance to the only logical and natural geopolitical model.

This "logical and natural geopolitical model" implies the division of Ukraine into several "zones", the majority of which will be directly controlled by Moscow.

In Ukraine, this model is now being promoted by a number of "strategists" and "political technologists". Yuriy Romanenko, a co-author of the article on "the scenario of the peaceful divorce of Ukraine", is one of them.

Romanenko is a Ukrainian"political technologist", who has long been interested in Dugin's geopolitics. In 2008, he wrote "The manifesto of the middle class" which started the "Dostali" ("Sick and tired") campaign that was meant to advance a populist idea that no politican can be trusted. Ultimately, this campaign was meant to damage the already weakened "Orange coalition" and multiply the chances of Yanukovych's success in the 2010 presidential election. In 2009, Romanenko also co-founded a similar populist "civic initiative", called "Get' usikh!" ("Down with everyone!"), which was launched by Yuriy Zbitnev and Dmytro Korchyns'ky.

Dmytro Korchyns'ky and Yuriy Zbitnev

In 2011, Romanenko, Zbitnev and Oleksiy Komarov (he co-authored the above-mentioned piece on the "peaceful divorce of Ukraine") took part in Yanukovych's Administration's attack on the Ukrainian oligarchs who were not affiliated with Yanukovych's "Family".

Yuriy Romanenko, Yuriy Zbitnev and Oleksiy Komarov

I have already mentioned Korchyns'ky and his links with the Russian authorities and their Ukrainian appointee Viktor Medvedchuk. Zbitnev is no less interesting. He is a "political technologist" too, but also the leader of the miniscule far right Nova Syla (New Force) party.

Yuriy Zbitnev (note the swastika-style logo of his "Nova Syla" party)

However, Zbitnev's leadership of the Nova Syla party and his friendship with Korchyns'ky are not the only links to the Ukrainian extreme right. Zbitnev has been also very close to the extra-parliamentary Social-National Assembly (SNA), and he participated in many joint events with the SNA and Korchyns'ky's Bratstvo party.

Andriy Bilets'ky and Yuriy Zbitnev lead the SNA march

Yuriy Zbitnev addresses the SNA activists (note the black "wolf's hook" logo of the SNA)

On the 1st of December 2013, SNA activists took part in the violent attack on the Presidential Administration which was meant to provoke a police suppression of the protests.

Armed SNA activists with "wolf's hook" arm bands

Provocations by the Presidential Administration and calls for the division of Ukraine are two sides of the same bad coin: the activities of Korchyns'ky, Romanenko, Zbitnev, and other right-wing extremists are inciting hatred, divisions, and fomenting civil war in Ukraine, and are eventually implementing the geopolitical strategy of Russian fascist imperialists. Korchyns'ky is already hiding in Russia, but he was not the only agent provocateur whose activities are very dangerous for Ukraine.