Politicians get trashed in Ukraine

08 October 2014 - 02:01 By ©The Daily Telegraph
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RUBBISHED: A Ukrainian politician is dumped in a bin
RUBBISHED: A Ukrainian politician is dumped in a bin
Image: YOUTUBE

It is a bad time to be a politician in Ukraine.

The war in the east goes on. Winter is approaching, and there are worries of another "gas-war" with Russia. And with parliamentary elections just weeks away pre-revolutionary MPs are getting nervous about their jobs.

And there is a growing chance of ending up in a wheelie bin.

Since early September up to a dozen MPs, city councillors and other officials accused of wrongdoing have been hauled from their offices by masked gangs in what has become known as the "Trash Bucket Challenge".

The perpetrators - often members of the right-wing group Right Sector - say the public humiliations are to punish the corruption and criminality that characterised the previous regime.

But critics say the attacks are one step away from public lynchings.

"The main thing in our country now is that the criminals are all still there," said Yury Mindiuk, the head of Right Sector's central executive.

Right Sector emerged during the revolution, and earned a fearsome reputation in the street fighting that led to former president Viktor Yanukovych's overthrow.

The group's Odessa branch came up with the trashing idea last month when they dumped Oleg Rudenko, a city official accused of taking a £28000 (about R500000) bribe, in a rubbish bin.

The stunt hit a chord. Soon groups across the country were doing the same thing to anyone from MPs with links to the previous regime through to local municipal officials accused of taking bribes.

Mindiuk said: "We wouldn't have to do this if the authorities were doing their jobs properly: prosecuting these people in a court of law."

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