Vigilante units to defend Crimea city against ‘fascist’ threat from Kyiv | Telegraph
Speaking briefly to a crowd of several hundred gathered outside the Black Sea port town hall on Tuesday evening, Alexei Chaliy said that volunteers would be able to sign up for the new units from 9am on Wednesday at the town hall.
The move will create city hall sponsored vigilante groups to counter those formed by the pro-European protesters who overthrew Viktor Yanukovych on the weekend.
Separatist passions have been running high in Sebastopol, the most fiercely pro-Russian city in the majority-Russian Crimean peninsular, since Mr Yanukovych was evicted in what many here describe as an armed coup by far-right anti-Russian and anti-Semitic groups, including the nationalist Svoboda party, led by Oleh Tyahnybok, and the Pravy Sektor paramilitary group.
People here say their worst fears were confirmed when the post-revolutionary Rada passed a law stripping Russian of its shared official status.
“If we do not act, we will have the Gestapo here. A year ago Tyahnybok talked about the genocide of Russians. We must form civil defence units now,” said Dmitry, a 41 year old linguistics professor. “We will fight with everything we get our hands on if we have to.”
Mr Chaliy, a local businessman, was installed as mayor on Monday on the back of a wave of popular outrage against the new authorities in Kyiv in the past three days.
Previously mayors of this strategic post town, which is also home to a large Russian naval base and 25,000 military personnel, were appointed by the Kyiv government. A spokesman on Monday night refused to put journalists with Mr Chaliy, saying he was in hiding after agents from the Ukrainian special services tried to arrest him.
But appearing in public to deliver his first policy announcement, Mr Chaily also said the city would guarantee the wages of officers from the Berkut riot police unit, which the post-revolutionary parliament in Kyiv has voted to disband. He would also open an “anti-terrorist centre” to coordinate the world of the new self defence units.
“This is not separatism,” said Igor Sovolyov, a programmer who said he had helped organise the recent demonstrations. “We’re just saying we don’t recognise the current government.”
But he added that there should also be a referendum allowing Crimeans to chose whether the peninsular whether it remains Ukrainian, joins Russia, or becomes independent.
“That is unfortunately illegal under Ukrainian law, because Kyiv is afraid of the outcome,” he said.
But while passions on the streets here are high, no more than 400 people gathered to hear Mr Chaliy speak on Tuesday night.
The head of a delegation of Russian parliamentary deputies, which flew into the Crimean capital of Simferopol to hold talks with local leaders on Tuesday, played down the prospect of offering Russian passports to ethnic Russian Ukrainian citizens.
“This is an extremely delicate question which demands both special study and a special decision by the leadership of the country,” Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the State Duma committee for CIS affairs, said.
Mr Slutsky’s party, the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democrats, has submitted a bill to the Russian parliament that would simplify passport applications for Ukrainian citizens.
The 20,000 strong garrison of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which leases a base in the city, has made no move to intervene in the crisis, although two armoured personnel carriers were seen near buildings used by the fleet on Tuesday.
Feb 25, 2014