Unfriendly steps towards national minorities have been becoming increasingly frequent in Western Ukrainian regions since Russia’s war in Ukraine began a year ago. Considering that, apparently, there are many entities that may be interested in escalating the situation all across Ukraine, thus I undertook to analyze this particular matter in my new blog post.
Hungary and Romania jointly raised their voices against Ukraine’s new legislation on national minorities, accepted in December 2022, I wrote in my latest blog post in January. Top Romanian officials turned to their colleagues in Kyiv and asked them to change the new law on national minorities, I reported on this occasion. Romania and Hungary agree that the law does not provide sufficient guarantees in many areas, including such basic spheres as full access to education in minority languages and the preservation of their religious and cultural identity, etc. In addition to the specific problematic issues mentioned, the new law, obviously, cannot guarantee the safe and untroubled life of ethnic minorities, since the harassment of the national communities continued even after the adoption of the law. As part of hostile but local measures, Hungarian national flags were removed from public buildings in Transcarpathia in January. With unified efforts, Budapest and Bucharest achieved that the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has begun to revise the Law of Ukraine On National Minorities. This step definitely indicates that there are still some traces of common sense in Europe.
Since Hungary is often criticized for its ’bird of peace’ position, and for not helping Ukraine with heavy weapons, as well as for blocking NATO-Ukraine summits, I dug a little deeper to understand the roots of such a Hungarian position. As a matter of fact, bilateral relations between Budapest and Kyiv reached the bottom after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I just wanted to understand why things got even worse during the war. A recent incident concerning the removal of the national flags rang the bell in my head. I wanted to know if there was anything else in addition to the flag scandal, or this was an isolated incident. It is very important to distinguish between the two options: in the case of a single incident, it is easier to accept the case of abuse of local administrative power, otherwise what is going on in some Western regions of Ukraine can be considered as part of a systematic, pre-planned and provoked political campaign, ordered by Kyiv and carried out by special services’ operatives, hand in hand with certain local actors.
While I was looking for the answer to this question, I have unfortunately found even more skeletons. Based on the result, it can be stated that removal of national flags has not been the only message in recent months when Ukrainian authorities made it clear that it was better for Hungarians in Transcarpathia to keep quiet, otherwise they would face retaliation.
Let’s start with an example from last year. Ukraine was attacked by Russia in early 2022, which turned Ukraine into a battlefield. Ukraine has been receiving various kinds of assistance from abroad, including Hungary. However, the national symbol of the Hungarians, the statue of a legendary bird, was removed from the historic Mukachevo Castle in November 2022. This incident occurred in accordance with the instructions of the local Baloga Clan. Although I wrote about this incident earlier, this time I would like to present a less-known side of this story. I am sure that this side track can contribute to the understanding of other events as well.
The ’godfather’ of the mentioned family, a political adventurer and former right-hand man of Viktor Yushchenko, a native of Transcarpathia Viktor Baloga has a bad reputation not only in his home region Transcarpathia, but also throughout Ukraine. It was his son, the mayor of Mukachevo, Andriy who decided to dismantle the Hungarian statue and replace it with a Ukrainian national symbol. These second-rate Transcarpathian oligarchs, who have made their family fortune mainly through smuggling, have become more active in recent months, obviously, hoping to benefit from the fact that Ukraine is at war and, the situation between Kyiv and Budapest is quite tense. In short, the story is as follows.
The story goes that, inspired by an article in a newspaper, Viktor Baloga sent a public letter to the interim head of the SBU in January, and suggested to deprive a native of Transcarpathia, Hungarian woman politician Ms Andrea Bockor, of Ukrainian citizenship. In his letter, posted on Facebook, Viktor Baloga claimed that Ms Bockor was associated with one of Ukraine’s pro-Russian parties ’Opposition Platform — For Life’, which is party supporting the oligarch and pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. In his letter, Mr Baloga also stated that the Ukrainian-Hungarian politician maintained personal contact with Viktor Medvedchuk. It should be noted that Ms Andrea Bockor is a delegate of Hungary’s ruling party Fidesz in the European Parliament, where she represents the Hungarian minority living in Ukraine.
The article which Viktor Baloga referred to in his letter was published in the Ukrainian journal ’Glavkom’ suggesting that Ms Bockor may have attended an event in Strasbourg in 2019, when Viktor Medvedchuk presented his ’peace plan for Ukraine’. Following his presentation to MEPs in Strasbourg, Medvedchuk allegedly flew to St. Petersburg on his private jet to report to Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenka about his impressions related to this event.
According to the responsible Ukrainian authorities, Medvedchuk has been in direct contact with the Russian intelligence and law enforcement agencies for many years: this was one of the reasons the oligarch was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship in January 2023.
I never thought for a moment that Viktor Baloga, who is emerging from the past, would be able to influence the current politics, and aggravate the situation in Western Ukraine. But, what if I add that, that Mr Baloga and the head of the SBU in the Transcarpathian region are actually belong to the same big family? (Daughter of Vladimir Geletey Edita married Andriy Baloga in 2013. In addition, Vladimir Geletey’s brother is brigadier general Valery Geletey — former Minister of Defense …) Does this detail change the full picture? I think it does. Then, an annoying question arises:
How can the Ukrainian Security Service afford to fabricate stories of doubtful authenticity and spoil the reputation of the ONLY Ukrainian MEP in Brussels, who, by the way, condemns Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and stands for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine? It should also be added that the SBU would better pursue its own reforms promised to the European Commission and abandon the good old nepotism which allows such fruitful cooperation of two families: the Balogas and the Geleteys.
In other words, why the SBU is interested in creating chaos in Western Ukraine? Is it only the SBU or does the SBU fulfill the requirements of President Zelenskiy? Who and for what purpose persuaded Mr Baloga to be engaged in such shady matters? Finally, who can actually influence the activities of the SBU: the leadership in Kyiv, or the authorities in Russia, Romania, maybe Hungary? I am just kidding. This, of course, is Kyiv, and this is the old SBU, which, obviously is unable to renew. It should be added that, given Ukraine’s status as an EU candidate, there is another influential entity which has received the right to exert pressure on Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, namely the respecting authorities in Brussels. They have the right to demand that the SBU stop needless tensions and break with smear campaigns against MEPs, and, at the same time, meet the criteria defined in the Association Agreement. I would expect this from both the Commission and the Parliament.
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