Global Research

The Schiller Institute has received an e-mail from Kiev, reporting on the seizure and occupation, by government security forces, of the offices of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU). The raid occurred on Friday, October 28. The statement below was issued by the PSPU Press Service today.

“Azov” refers to the Azov Battalion (image right), an armed formation rooted in the fascist Right Sector movement, which was instrumental in the violent coup of February 2014, in which Ukraine’s elected President Victor Yanukovych was overthrown. This year, Azov registered itself as a political party, called the National Corps.

Dr. Natalia Vitrenko, the economist who leads the PSPU, has warned since the early 1990s that the brutal economic policies demanded by the International Monetary Fund would set the stage for political chaos and a fascist movement in Ukraine. She was a Presidential candidate in 1999, running at over 30 percent in public opinion polls before her campaign was thrown into disarray by an assassination attempt. Her party this year has been physically attacked by Right Sector toughs and is facing government attempts to deregister it.

Background information and Dr. Vitrenko’s speeches in English are available via the links shown at the end of this release.

PSPU Press Department Statement

The Ukrainian government’s political terror machine is moving to crush any free thinking, any small shoots of independent opinion, and any evaluations of current events, made on their own by political parties, public organizations, journalists or writers.

Hiding behind the cover of slogans about European values, democracy and the rule of law, in reality the institutions of state power in Ukraine are acting through law enforcement agencies and neo-Nazi battalions, to carry out a systematic mop-up of any dissidence.

The struggle of the Euromaidan government against the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) and its leader, Natalia Vitrenko, is a challenge to the world community.

On 28 October 2016 a group of individuals, including fighters from Azov, broke down the entrance door and seized the premises of Siver Ukraina LLC. Since 2005 among the tenants of this building has been the PSPU, as well as the editorial offices of the PSPU newspaper Dosvitni ogni (Light before Dawn), and later the public organizations Dar zhizni (Gift of Life), the Eurasian People’s Union, and the Assembly of Orthodox Women of Ukraine.

Siver Ukraina LLC obtained ownership of these premises in 2003 and has not been legally deprived of these rights in the intervening years. Neither has any party contested or dissolved the leases contracted with the aforementioned tenants.

Nonetheless, carrying out a political order to act against the PSPU, which has a unique status as a party in opposition to current domestic and foreign policy, and against its leader, Natalia Vitrenko, the police essentially allowed these premises to be seized and handed over to the SBU for an illegal search. This marks the beginning of a new phase of political terror against the PSPU.

Background information

“Ukrainian economist Natalia Vitrenko: Finding a noble path out of the crisis”, 6 November 2009

“Ukrainian patriots expose EU support for neo-Nazi coup”, 7 March 2014

“Let us end this nightmare, and turn to building things”, speech by Natalia Vitrenko to Citizens Electoral Council of Australia International Conference, March 2015

“Facing terror under a Kiev regime”, 24 April 2015

“A report on the state of Ukraine”, 24 February 2016

“Neo-Nazi thugs attack Vitrenko’s Kiev demonstration”, 23 March 2016

“Vitrenko’s Progressive Socialists dramatize economic hardships, rights violations in Ukraine”, 28 September 2016

Dr. Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, in a screen grab from her video interview, posted 1 November 2016. It was filmed outside her office, now occupied by security forces. The interview can be watched in Russian at https://youtu.be/luE8frGHjgY.