While the U.S.A., U.K., and other NATO countries spend tens of billions of dollars on pouring weapons into Ukraine, prolonging the fighting there in the name of “defending democracy,” the supposed model democrats of the Kiev regime are systematically banning opposition political parties and trampling on European and international norms of justice. On March 20, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended eleven parties, including the Opposition Platform—For Life (OPFL) of Viktor Medvedchuk (now under arrest), which held 10% of the seats in the Supreme Rada, the parliament. On May 3 the Rada banned “pro-Russian parties” by a law, which Zelenskyy signed on May 14. The eleven suspended parties, and several more, were publicly labeled “pro-Russian"—with no presumption of innocence—including by the Minister of Justice and other government officials.
To implement the new law, the Ministry of Justice and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have brought a case against each party. Additional decrees by Zelenskyy and decisions of the National Security and Defense Council are also being invoked. The cases were all assigned to the Eighth Administrative Appeals Court, located in Lviv—500 km west of Kiev in an area generally politically hostile to the parties. So far, 14 parties have been banned and orders issued to confiscate their property. This across-the-board crushing of opposition parties has received minimal coverage in the international media.
Anatoly Shariy, whose “Party of Shariy” was banned (its recent activity has been limited to raising funds for and distributing food and necessities to elderly and other needy citizens), today posted a 20-minute video, with English subtitles, that dissects the absurdity of these legal travesties in the Lviv court (https://youtu.be/ewBOBcRenE0). The video should be of interest to anyone concerned about “democracy” in Europe and elsewhere. Shariy, a popular Ukrainian blogger and crusader against corruption and neo-Nazism, who lives in exile in Spain, read aloud from the rap sheet used against his party in court, showing that not only did the party do none of the things charged, but that most of the “offenses” were not even crimes under Ukraine law. The Party of Shariy’s lawyer was prevented from attending the court by the government’s filing of a criminal case against him (for comments made in a WhatsApp chat), so that he would have been arrested at the airport upon arrival from Western Europe. Defense lawyers’ participation by remote video hook-up in the closed-door proceedings was not allowed.
The only countersuit to the government actions, according to Ukrainian and Russian media, was filed by Dr. Natalia Vitrenko and Volodymyr Marchenko, former MPs who led the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) until it ceased all activity on Feb. 24, 2022. In their countersuit against the Justice Ministry and SBU, which was made public by the government, they refuted the charges point by point, citing, inter alia:
• Violation of the presumption of innocence;
• Holding an entire party responsible for alleged actions by its leaders (prohibited by European court rulings);
