That’s really scraping the bottom of the barrel: in the center of Kyiv volunteer battalions protect entrepreneurs from the cops and plainclothes cops-titushky. There are injured. The war with the middle class moved to the ‘hot’ phase. Before that we had a 3200 UAH minimum wage; cash register for the ‘big household appliances’; unified social tax for those businessmen, who do not operate; local authorities right to verify labor relations; IT companies shakedowns and the persistent attempts to eliminate, or at least, emasculate the simplified tax system.
Also the increase in tariffs, without any compensation for the middle class, is an unfriendly act, to put it mildly. Meanwhile the fighters with a shadow economy, who somehow notice only small and mass violations and do not want to see offshore companies, ‘tax pits’, ‘kickbacks’ and so on, are already rubbing their hands in anticipation of getting access to the Privatbank databases. They harbor a plan to fully fiscalize cash payments (grandmother selling radishes – with a cash register!), as well as indirect methods controlling individuals` income.
And all this happens in the background of undisturbed ‘oligarchs’ of all sizes, ranging from DTEK, which enjoys one of the highest tariffs in a region, approved by the NCSREPU head, a former ‘Roshen’ manager; Privatbank, which debts we are now forced to pay, and so on down, to the local monopoly and village chief`s godfather.So, if a suicide attack on the middle class (even if it is ‘shadow’ and ‘bad’, but what is there) will go on at the same pace, I do not believe this government will preserve the power and our country – its current form. Alas, but this situation begins to resemble the spring of 2010, when, after the first steps of Viktor Yanukovych, it became clear that the case is over a new revolution, and, this time, a bloody revolution. It was hard then to believe in that. And it was even impossible to accept the idea that a peaceful life in Ukraine will come to an end.Nevertheless, we need the cynical science to figure out sober forecasts and prevent fatal errors.
Read the full interview [in ukrainian].