The book launching of Without Putin... by Mikhail Kasyanov, leader of the Popular Democratic Union, was disrupted in Kiev on Thursday evening. Three hours before the presentation, electricity was switched off on two floors of the five-star Premier Palace Hotel where the event was to take place, and the entrance to the hotel was blocked by unidentified skinheads. Mr Kasyanov, recalling his trips to Russian regions where similar methods were used to disrupt his events, told the Kommersant that he had not imagined the same could happen in Ukraine.
According to Yelena Dikun, Mikhail Kasyanov's advisor, three hours before the start of the presentation of Without Putin..., which Kasyanov wrote together with journalist Yevgeny Kiselyov, there was a blackout on two floors of the hotel Premier Palace.
"At first we thought it was a glitch and that power supply would be restored quickly," Ms Dikun said. "However, the hotel's management did nothing and then suggested that the event be moved to another hotel. By the time the guests arrived, the hotel lounge was filled with a score of skin-headed, burly fellows in track suits who blocked the entrance to the hotel and did not allow anyone in, including Yevgeny Kiselyov."
As a result, Ms Dikun said, instead of a "peaceful social occasion to which the city's elite had been invited," Mikhail Kasyanov held a "political press conference" hastily organized at the Leonardo Business Centre. In addition to a crowd of journalists and experts, it was attended by the chief of the Ukrainian President's press service, several of his advisors, and members of Yulia Tymoshenko's staff.
Mikhail Kasyanov told Kommersant that the "Ukrainian government bodies" "definitely have nothing to do" with the disruptive actions. Ms Dikun for her part said that "according to the hotel management, the Premier Palace is the only hotel in Kiev controlled by Moscow businessmen, including State Duma Deputy Alexander Babakov." Alexander Babakov, deputy speaker of the State Duma and a member of the Just Russia Party, was not available for comment yesterday because he was on a foreign trip and his mobile phone was switched off. His press service reports that "Alexander Babakov is not the owner of the hotel."
"I could not imagine that such a thing was possible in Ukraine," Mr Kasyanov told Kommersant. "If Babakov really has any connection with the hotel, the incident is not his initiative; he is just trimming his sails to the winds in Russia." Mr Kasyanov said that following his electoral trips to Russian regions where blackouts happened all the time, his fellow party members have made a point of finding out in advance who owns the premises rented before organizing such events. Preference is given to foreign companies so that "the chance of the regime putting pressure on the owners is minimal."
"In Kiev, we made no inquiries about the owners because it did not occur to us that such a thing could happen in an independent state," he stressed. Yevgeny Kiselyov remarked that "we wanted to have a normal presentation with a glass of wine, but instead we ended up dashing about Kiev." One of the political analysts who had been invited to the presentation, director of the Global Strategies Institute, Vadim Karasev, believes that such incidents "are practically impossible in independent Ukraine."
"But," he continues, "because the hotel belongs to a Russian businessman, we see that Russian politics comes to Ukraine along with Russian money, which of course is inadmissible." Premier Palace managers declined to comment on the situation. Yesterday. journalists were prevented from recording an interview with Mikhail Kasyanov in the hotel lounge.
Maria-Luiza-Tirmaste, Artyom Skoropadsky