Yanukovych junior expresses concern over police beatings, his press service quits

“I was very disappointed
with what I saw in the news,” said the 32-year-old lawmaker. 

“Everybody can defend their
point of view in any legal way. But there is no way to explain the fact that
after student leaders announced that the rally is postponed and the stage was
dismantled, the activists who possibly stayed there behaved not at all
peacefully in relation to law enforcement officers,” Yanukovych Jr. said
on his Facebook page on Dec.1. “I feel sorry for the victims. There is no
other word but provocation to call it.”

Meanwhile on the same
day, Olga Ivakhno and Oleksandr Shcherbakov, the heads of his press-service
announced on their Facebook pages that they’re quitting their posts. They named
the forceful dispersal of demonstrators in Kyiv as the main reason for their
decision.  

“Taking into
account the crackdown of peaceful demonstration on Saturday morning (Nov. 30) and
the course taken by the authorities after these events, we Olga Ivakhno and
Oleksandr Shcherbakov refuse to carry out the responsibilities of Viktor
Yanukovych Jr.’s press-service,” they said on Facebook.

Yanukovych Jr. on Dec. 2
disputed their exit on his Facebook page. But Ivakhno told the Kyiv Post the
two left.

“The information
published on Yanukovych Jr.’s page is an absolute lie and from this moment one
cannot believe a word published there,” Ivakhno said.

Moreover, since Nov.30
several members of parliament have exited the ruling Party of Regions,
including Inna Bogoslovska, her husband Volodymyr Melnychenko, deputies Davyd
Zhvania, Mykola Rudkovsky and Viktor Bondar. 

At a Dec. 2 press
briefing, parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Rybak told journalists that he has
only received Zhvania’s resignation. 

Presidential
chief-of-staff Serhiy Lyovochkin has also resigned as did Kyiv police chief Valery Koryak.

Kyiv Post staff writer
Anastasia Forina can be reached at forina@kyivpost.com