Written by Nikolaus von Twickel<\/p>\n
Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n Rumours of arrests and sackings continued to shake the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic while separatist leader Zakharchenko did not appear much in public. A \u201cTribunal\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cDNR\u201d awash with arrest rumours<\/strong><\/p>\n The situation in the Donetsk \u201cPeople\u2019s Republic\u201d 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 \u201cMinister\u201d Igor Andrienko has been arrested in Donetsk. The information first appeared on an anonymous telegram channel and was later reported<\/a> by the dnr-live.ru website, citing an unnamed source.<\/p>\n The report linked the sacking to the powerful \u201cDNR\u201d deputy \u201cprime minister\u201d Alexander Timofeyev, who is also income \u201cminister\u201d and oversees both the Transport and Energy \u201cMinistries\u201d. Energy \u201cMinister\u201d Eduard Golenko was arrested<\/a> in February along with more than 20 officials and a police raid of his \u201cministry\u201d over corruption allegations.<\/p>\n Also said to have been arrested earlier this month was Igor Badusev, the head of the \u201cDNR\u201d fuel monopoly, following supply shortages which led to long lines at petrol stations in the \u201cPeople\u2019s Republics.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ukrainian intelligence service SBU suggested<\/a> that Badusev\u2019s company was reselling military fuel shipments from Russia designated for the separatist forces at higher-than market prices at its petrol stations.<\/p>\n However, it is unclear whether Badusev\u2019s and Andrienko\u2019s arrests, both of which have not been confirmed so far, represent attempts to clean up corruption in the \u201cDNR\u201d 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.<\/p>\n But the reports highlight tensions in the \u201cDNR\u201d, where a mild, \u201csystemic\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Another critic, Donetsk-based journalist and political consultant Roman Manekin, on June 27 published<\/a> a list of 31 cases of arrest and forced sackings of separatist functionaries, including Andrienko, in which he deplores that the situation in the \u201cDNR\u201d is one \u201cof permanent arrests\u201d and demands free and transparent elections.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> any material<\/a> since May 11.<\/p>\n Zakharchenko himself is also rarely seen in public. After making three<\/a> public<\/a> appearances<\/a> on June 12 (the third being with Transport \u201cMinister\u201d Andrienko), he only showed up<\/a> at a coalminers\u2019 ceremony on June 19 and in an undated television interview with his advisor, Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin, aired<\/a> in Donetsk on June 20.<\/p>\n He also failed to make a public appearance for his 42. birthday on June 26. Instead, the official \u201cDAN\u201d news website published congratulations from \u201cLNR\u201d leader Pasechnik<\/a> and South Ossetian separatist leader Anatoly Bibilov<\/a>. However, the \u201cDNR\u201d leader promised<\/a> to answer viewers\u2019 questions during a \u201cdirect line\u201d TV show on the evening of June 28.<\/p>\n Luhansk tribunal criticised for being Ukrainian<\/strong><\/p>\n On June 22, a \u201cUkrainian People\u2019s Tribunal\u201d in Luhansk announced life sentences for President Petro Poroshenko and the country\u2019s top government officials for alleged crimes against humanity. The tribunal<\/a>, 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<\/a> and Alexander Zakharchenko<\/a> (as \u201ccitizens\u201d, as they stressed themselves) to heap accusations against Ukraine.<\/p>\n While the \u201ctribunal\u201d clearly strengthened hatred and hostility versus Ukraine, it elicited some scathing criticism from some separatists, precisely for its use of the term Ukrainian. \u201cPlaying the good Ukrainians against bad Ukrainians game\u201d reflects \u201cthe policy of uniting Ukrainians in a single Ukraine rather than uniting the Russian people in Russia,\u201d Donetsk separatist fighter Alexander Zhuchkovsky wrote<\/a> in his Telegram channel, adding that he found this line sickening.<\/p>\n Konstantin Dolgov, a blogger and pro-Russian activist who moved from Donetsk to Moscow last year, argued in a video blog<\/a> that a \u201cUkrainian tribunal\u201d utterly betrays the People\u2019s Republics aim to separate from Ukraine. He also accused the organizers of plagiarizing an idea that was originally invented in the \u201cDNR\u201d Foreign \u201cMinistry\u201d when he worked there in 2015.<\/p>\n Is Plotnitsky hiding in Voronezh?<\/strong><\/p>\n A pro-Russian journalist from Ukraine said in comments on a Facebook post<\/a> 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\u2019s whereabouts or his health since he was forcefully removed from power in autumn (see Newsletter 25<\/a>).<\/p>\n Rumours that Plotnitsky was in Voronezh first appeared<\/a> during the \u201cLuhansk Putsch\u201d 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 \u2013 according to a local media report<\/a> after eating poisonous mushrooms.<\/p>\n However, nobody has since been able to confirm Plotnitsky\u2019s whereabouts \u2013 neither in Voronezh nor in the Moscow region, where he was also rumoured to live. A video<\/a> showing Plotnitsky at Moscow\u2019s 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<\/a> in February that Plotnitsky was being held in a detention centre in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n Plotnitsky, who led the Luhansk \u201cPeople\u2019s Republic\u201d 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 \u201cPeople\u2019s Republic\u201d.<\/p>\n