Professional security business is very profitable today: one soldier trained in hand-to-hand-fighting with an ability to handle a weapon, costs from 600 to 800 hryvnias per night, and a head of such a squad earn 1 000-1 200 hryvnias, while having excellent special training. That’s why the Konstantinovskiy brothers are not the only ones who can turn self-defense into business. Officially, the Maidan units completely dismiss the information about the commercial side to their work, stressing that even if some people try to “buy” them, it’s useless. But ordinary Self-Defense members admit that it is a financial issue that today undermines numbers of fighters who went to defend their homes and country.
The soldier Vladislav agrees to meet on neutral territory with full anonymity provided. We meet at the metro station Shuliavska around 9 PM and drive off to a quiet place with no cars. My counterpart is a handsome strong brunette who is really worried about his fellow and what is happening with them today.
“We are becoming fewer and fewer”, he says annoyingly while parking.
“Where do you go?”
“Our guys (from the Sviatoshyn district in Kiev. – Reporter) are being lured by different organizations. For example, I got a call by an organization Narodna Rada – Gromadyanska Kolo, who offered a place for us. Or guys are on duty, but those are bypassing them and call up dispatchers to whom they also offer positions. At the same time, they’re disguising as the heads of the Sviatoshyn district. They don’t promise lots of benefits, only money for gas, identity cards and food. They also promise that it will be useful for us in the future. Like, when it's over, there will be the new police and all of you will become policemen. It’s not so difficult to lure kids. First, there we’ve been buying petrol ourselves for a while and work only by the enthusiasm. That is during the day we do our job, but at night we patrol. We actually sleep for two or three hours a day, and they, dumb heads, use that. Certain businessmen also call us, as well as representatives of parties – Svoboda, Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform – and try to lure us: they give us vests, helmets and IDs. They sometimes follow our cars, trying to intimidate us. That’s why guys are thinking about coming under their wing.”
Vladislav says that recently those Narodna Rada members organized of meeting of Self-Defense members of the Sviatoshyn district in one of the nightclubs on Prospekt Pobedy. Beside the fighters, they also invited businessmen and representatives of local authorities. In particular, Vladislav recognized Aleksandr Pabat, deputy of the Kiev city council. At the meeting, the businessmen were offered protection and the guys – work.
“We asked them right away: are you doing it for business only? They started to stutter, like, not only for business but also for the people... After that, we stopped listening to them, most of the guys went out of there, but some stayed.”
Reporter called Aleksandr Pabat, who shed light on who actually those Narodna Rada members were and what happened in the nightclub.
“I came to that meeting as a resident of Borshchahivka, not a deputy. All of this was presented as the forming of the association of Self-Defense in our neighborhood. So I offered them a few steps for structuring. But it turned out that the organizers want to put this on a commercial basis. The organizers were deputies of the Sviatoshyn district from the parties Batkivshchyna, Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reformand Svoboda, I’ve known them for a long time. They offered the kids to abandon the Maidan Self-Defense, as well as Right Sector. Like, let’s go under our wing, we’ll protect you. At the same time, they offered the same for the businessmen, promising them protection, too. That is so because these parties are afraid of people’s control, and they may have wanted to make money. And I know that they’re doing the same in other districts of Kiev.”
Most of Self-Defense members are not professionals, that’s for sure, and that’s why the organizers didn’t plan to pay them. According to Pabat, the businessmen didn’t agree to pay for the services as well, so that the idea of the Gromadyanska Kolo has fallen flat. However, they’re not giving up...
On the one hand, units of Self-Defense have become a forced necessity for Kiev and the region, as law enforcers didn’t work because of the situation in the country. The police today are just trying to recover and fight again. On the other hand, many residents of the country, as well as officials, are outraged that today people, who have no legal right to do it, are checking their documents at the roadblocks. Former boys and suspicious persons suddenly started to carry assault rifles... The eligibility of these units and their actions (such as checking of documents and inspection of baggage at the airport) also raises many questions. But it’s not safe to express outrage about that. A notable mention is the Rivno activist Alexander Muzychko (a.k.a Sasha Beliy), who first appeared with the Kalashnikov in the local state administration, cuffed the local prosecutor, and then promised to the newly appointed Minister of the Interior, Arsen Avakov, that he will “hang him on a tree, like a dog.” And a few activists of the Maidan (e.g., Anatoliy Traksel) praised Muzychko actions on their pages in social networks.
It’s horrible that these units are so enjoying so much confidence among many citizens that people cannot doubt their statements, and they immediately find an excuse to the use of force.
“Today, a member of Self-Defense can come anywhere,” Andrey Pervak said to me during an interview, patting his chest gun holster.
