Dobkin, despite ties to Yanukovych, says he will carry Party of Regions banner in presidential election

Borys Kolesnikov, a member of parliament and former transport minister, said that the party’s political council had just chosen the 44-year-old politician to run in the May 25 election. His candidacy  is expected to be formally recognized by a vote at the party’s congress tomorrow.

The chances of regaining the presidency for the former ruling party, which is heavily tied to the crimes and corruption of overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych, are considered slim, judging by polls and political analysts.

Yanukovych appointed Dobkin who was a stalwart supporter of the disgraced leader, who fled to Russia after being toppled on Feb. 22. Yanukovych is now wanted on an international arrest warrant for allegedly ordering the mass murders of more than 100 EuroMaidan Revolution demonstrators. He is also under investigation for extensive corruption, which current Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said involves billions of dollars in loans to Ukraine that went missing.

However, Dobkin still stays he’s the man to lead Ukraine out of its crisis and into a brighter future.

Despite being under house arrest on suspicion of “infringement upon the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Dobkin said he will run on a platform to restore good relations with Russia. Dobkin was arrested March 10 in Kharkiv and released on bail later after billionaire Rinat Akhmetov pledged that he would assure Dobkin’s presence in court proceedings.

“One of my main goals is to build a strong partnership with Russia and integrate our (similar) industries…you can’t do anything without Russia,” he told a group of invited journalists.

His platform mirrored what the Kremlin has been pushing for Ukraine: changing the constitution to give more powers to the regions under the banner of “federalization.” Governors would also be elected locally instead of being appointed by the president.

Dobkin denied he is being backed by Russians, and defended his new vision for Ukraine as one that “Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Great Britain have also proposed for it.”

Federalization is needed, according to him, “as the most optimal form to preserve the regional identity of Ukrainians because we speak different languages, have different religious faiths and different historical heroes and versions of history.”

He admitted to having strong ties with Russian officials at the gubernatorial level, including Valentina Matviyenko when she was governor of Saint Petersburg. The Ukraine-born official is currently Russia’s highest ranking female politician as chairperson of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.

Enjoying a 4.2 percent approval rating according to a March 25 poll, Dobkin said he is also for giving “maximum freedom to businesses because we must end the oligarchic control of the economy.”

He is against war with Russia or a civil war, and called the neighboring countries “brotherly nations.”

“I don’t want a repeat of the year 1917 when brother fought brother,” said Dobkin, referring to the Russian civil war that also brought internal strife to Ukraine.

To regain Crimea, he said a strong “European nation must be created inside the country first, which could win the hearts and minds of Crimeans to rejoin Ukraine.”

He defended donning a t-shirt of Berkut, the recently disbanded riot police unit, when he was governor on Jan. 30, saying he would wear it again. Berkut was criticized for its use of brutal and excessive force against EuroMaidan protesters.

“They (Berkut) did their jobs and followed orders, I would put on the t-shirt on again today,” he said defiantly.

Expulsion of former senior officials from party

The others in attendance, Party of Regions parliamentary faction leader Oleksandr Yefremov, Hanna Herman, Olena Bondarenko, ex-Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Rybak, and Kolesnikov, said the following will be voted out of the party on March 29: ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, Ex-First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov, ex-presidential chief of staff Andriy Klyuyev and former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].