Written by Nikolaus von Twickel
Summary
Rumours of arrests and sackings continued to shake the Donetsk People’s Republic while separatist leader Zakharchenko did not appear much in public. A “Tribunal” in Luhansk, which on June 22 handed lifelong sentences to the Ukrainian leadership, evoked sharp criticism from some separatists – for calling itself Ukrainian. And a journalist claimed on Facebook that deposed Luhansk leader Plotnitsky is hiding in Russia.
“DNR” awash with arrest rumours
The situation in the Donetsk “People’s Republic” remained tense as rumours about arrests and sackings continued to cast doubt on the political stability of the current separatist regime. On June 26, unconfirmed reports said that Transport “Minister” Igor Andrienko has been arrested in Donetsk. The information first appeared on an anonymous telegram channel and was later reported by the dnr-live.ru website, citing an unnamed source.
The report linked the sacking to the powerful “DNR” deputy “prime minister” Alexander Timofeyev, who is also income “minister” and oversees both the Transport and Energy “Ministries”. Energy “Minister” Eduard Golenko was arrested in February along with more than 20 officials and a police raid of his “ministry” over corruption allegations.
Also said to have been arrested earlier this month was Igor Badusev, the head of the “DNR” fuel monopoly, following supply shortages which led to long lines at petrol stations in the “People’s Republics.”
The Ukrainian intelligence service SBU suggested that Badusev’s company was reselling military fuel shipments from Russia designated for the separatist forces at higher-than market prices at its petrol stations.
However, it is unclear whether Badusev’s and Andrienko’s arrests, both of which have not been confirmed so far, represent attempts to clean up corruption in the “DNR” or to give separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko a chance to present himself as being a tough anti-corruption campaigner (both is possible). Zakharchenko is expected to run for re-election in November, four years after the first separatist elections in Donetsk and Luhansk, which were strongly criticized as illegal by Ukraine and its allies.
But the reports highlight tensions in the “DNR”, where a mild, “systemic” opposition has been forming recently around former separatist leader Pavel Gubarev and his wife Yekaterina, who are believed to control the dnr-live.ru portal.
Another critic, Donetsk-based journalist and political consultant Roman Manekin, on June 27 published a list of 31 cases of arrest and forced sackings of separatist functionaries, including Andrienko, in which he deplores that the situation in the “DNR” is one “of permanent arrests” and demands free and transparent elections.
Meanwhile, the most prominent critic of the Donetsk separatist leadership, former commander Alexander Khodakovsky, remained silent. Khodakovsky, who usually posted several times per day on social media, has not published any material since May 11.
Zakharchenko himself is also rarely seen in public. After making three public appearances on June 12 (the third being with Transport “Minister” Andrienko), he only showed up at a coalminers’ ceremony on June 19 and in an undated television interview with his advisor, Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin, aired in Donetsk on June 20.
He also failed to make a public appearance for his 42. birthday on June 26. Instead, the official “DAN” news website published congratulations from “LNR” leader Pasechnik and South Ossetian separatist leader Anatoly Bibilov. However, the “DNR” leader promised to answer viewers’ questions during a “direct line” TV show on the evening of June 28.
Luhansk tribunal criticised for being Ukrainian
On June 22, a “Ukrainian People’s Tribunal” in Luhansk announced life sentences for President Petro Poroshenko and the country’s top government officials for alleged crimes against humanity. The tribunal, held on a stage in front of a large audience in the city centre, resembled a show more than any judicial procedure, allowing separatist leaders Leonid Pasechnik and Alexander Zakharchenko (as “citizens”, as they stressed themselves) to heap accusations against Ukraine.
While the “tribunal” clearly strengthened hatred and hostility versus Ukraine, it elicited some scathing criticism from some separatists, precisely for its use of the term Ukrainian. “Playing the good Ukrainians against bad Ukrainians game” reflects “the policy of uniting Ukrainians in a single Ukraine rather than uniting the Russian people in Russia,” Donetsk separatist fighter Alexander Zhuchkovsky wrote in his Telegram channel, adding that he found this line sickening.
Konstantin Dolgov, a blogger and pro-Russian activist who moved from Donetsk to Moscow last year, argued in a video blog that a “Ukrainian tribunal” utterly betrays the People’s Republics aim to separate from Ukraine. He also accused the organizers of plagiarizing an idea that was originally invented in the “DNR” Foreign “Ministry” when he worked there in 2015.
Is Plotnitsky hiding in Voronezh?
A pro-Russian journalist from Ukraine said in comments on a Facebook post on June 25 that former Luhansk separatist leader Igor Plotnitsky had been sent to exile in the Russian city of Voronezh. The information has not been confirmed by anyone, but serves as a reminder that virtually nothing is known about Plotnitsky’s whereabouts or his health since he was forcefully removed from power in autumn (see Newsletter 25).
Rumours that Plotnitsky was in Voronezh first appeared during the “Luhansk Putsch” in November. It was previously known that his parents and his son Stanislav live in the southern Russian city. Plotnitsky confirmed in autumn 2016 that both his parents had died – according to a local media report after eating poisonous mushrooms.
However, nobody has since been able to confirm Plotnitsky’s whereabouts – neither in Voronezh nor in the Moscow region, where he was also rumoured to live. A video showing Plotnitsky at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, purportedly on November 23, has never been verified. The same holds for a claim made by a former separatist fighter called Vladlen Zaruba, who said in a video interview in February that Plotnitsky was being held in a detention centre in St Petersburg.
Plotnitsky, who led the Luhansk “People’s Republic” since 2014, was ousted after a conflict with his own security services under Leonid Pasechnik, who took over power after being backed by troops from the Donetsk “People’s Republic”.
The coup was the first leadership change among the separatists since the signing of the Minsk agreement, which was signed by Plotnitsky and Zakharchenko, albeit without job titles. Pasechnik said initially that Plotnitsky had been appointed the “LNR” chief Minsk negotiator, but he never showed up at any of the negotiations.
