Literary Festivals and Oligarchs
From April 23-25,
2014, the inaugural ‘Ukrainian
Literature Festival in IZOLYATSIA’ writers’ forum was held in Donetsk.
The theme was Language and Violence. Over three days in a former factory, now an
arts and cultural centre, writers and philosophers from all over Ukraine met to
discuss the topic ‘Language and Violence’ with residents of Donbas.
From one of the participants: Years of abandoned industry and no jobs have
driven people to desperation. And language is literally shaping their world
now, as an information war drives them to take up arms over whether they speak
Russian or Ukrainian, whether they live in Russia or Ukraine or an independent
republic, whether their actions make them heroes or terrorists, patriots or
separatists.
From the Curators of the festival: We hold that the task before the
intellectual is not merely to respond to social challenge, but to incite
it. And to incite it in a way that does not leave society hanging, but
that drives forceful – and collective – examination of each challenge, and
results in inspired solutions.
Meanwhile in Donestk, a meeting took
place between Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Rinat Akhmetov and Serhiy Taruta. Taruta is the Governor of Donestk Oblast and one
of the richest Ukrainian oligarchs, who was appointed governor by the interim
government leaders, and participated in Maidan protests with his two daughters. Mikhail
Khodorkovsky (Russian) is the former
head of the Yukos oil empire, a main rival of Putin’s and now
is living in exile in Switzerland.Rinat
Akhmetov is the owner of System Capital Management; one of Ukraine's leading financial and
industrial firms (involved in metals and mining, power generation, banking and
insurance, telecommunications, media and real estate). Akhmetov is believed
to be the wealthiest Ukrainian.
Khodorkovsky reported that both Akhmetov
and Taruta made it clear that Donbas remains a part of Ukraine. Donbas refers
to the Oblasts (regions) of Donestk and Luhansk. Akhmetov and Taruta (and Khodorkovsky) do not
support the separatists, but agree that sending special forces from Kyiv is not
a solution to solve the current situation.
Khodorkovsky also expressed his doubts
that sanctions by the international community against the Russian Federation,
especially against Putin, will stop him from invading Ukraine: “No sanctions will be effective quickly. The
economic situation for Russia will not be critical for 3-5 years. It will
become worse, the living standards will deteriorate, but there are enough gold
reserves and strength to last for a few years.”
There have been reports, denied by
Akhemetov’s firm, that the separatism in Donetsk and Luhansk is taking place
with the direct assistance of Akhmetov and the leader of the Party of Regions
faction, Oleksandr Yefremov.
According to Serhiy Leshchenko, a
journalist at Ukrainska Provda, in March-April Akhmetov flew to Moscow to meet
with Putin. The journalist explains that the result of that meeting is now
visible on the streets of Donetsk. While in February, Akhmetov came out against
federalization and separatism. In early April, he urged separatists to
negotiate with the government and act an intermediary in this process.
Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine freed a Swedish
observer today, but said they had no plans to release seven other European
monitors they have been holding for three days. The observers, from Germany,
Denmark, Poland and the Czech Republic and Sweden, are accused of spying for
NATO and using the OSCE mission as a cover.
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