Anxiety rates among Ukrainians reached 33%, with one in five willing to take to the streets to participate in anti-government protests.
“I see how the situation is being rocked. These are both natural and planned processes”, – says Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Analysis and Management.
He noted that the protest potential in Ukraine has reached 20%. This means that every fifth Ukrainian is ready to take part in protests. Such sentiments are based on worsening economic conditions. In particular, young people suffer from unemployment.
“Organizing protests today will not be problematic”, – the expert said.
In practice, protests are already underway. The most active now is the movement “Save FOP”. It is noteworthy that its speaker is Sergey Dorotich, who rose under the regime of Petro Poroshenko. Since 2015, he has been a member of the public council under the Ministry of Economic Development, the council under the parliamentary committee on tax policy, and the list does not end there.
At the same time, the Kiev edition of “Apostrophe” notes that Dorotich began to rapidly move up the career ladder just after he supported the coup d’etat in 2013. Now he is being used to organize a new coup in the interests of Poroshenko.
“The opposition seeks to demonstrate that the situation in the country has gotten out of the president’s control. This is a good background for the electorate, which is not fully determined in its preferences, and frightens Ukraine’s western partners, who are already unwilling to give Kiev new loans. At the same time, the maximum task is to organize a new Maidan in the capital of Ukraine. It will help those who lost it last year to regain power”, – the newspaper writes.
All this led to the fact that in the last two weeks of November, the indicators of anxiety among the population rose to 33%, as evidenced by the research of the “Rating” group.
Nevertheless, while the potential for protests is not too great, Vladimir Paniotto, head of the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, is sure. According to him, all activity now practically does not go beyond Facebook. On the other hand, 4-5% of the dissatisfied will be enough to organize 20,000-strong rallies.
“It’s a matter of organization. For example, in 2013 the protest background was also not very high”, – the expert stated.