26 March 2018, Kyiv. Right-wing radicals try to derail a debate on... far right groups and human rights. Source: Facebook.I arrived ahead of time at the discussion event on the far right and the right to peaceful assembly. The event was being held as part of the Docudays UA International Documentary Film Festival in Kyiv in late March, and I’d been invited to participate on the panel. I was early, but a few “guests” were already waiting for me. Near the entrance to the venue there were two dozen awkward-looking teenagers wearing inconspicuous sportswear. A police detachment was keeping an eye on them. The teenagers recognised me – I frequently write and talk about the far right, and do so without concealing my identity – but they didn’t shout insults and let me walk through calmly. The floor inside was strewn with “Respect Diversity” posters ripped down from the walls, and police were walking around the hall.
As it turned out, activists from the far right movements Right Sector, Katehon and Tradition and Order had shown up, it seems, to confirm the thesis regarding the Ukrainian far right’s disruption of feminist initiatives and to sabotage the discussion itself – but they got their times mixed up and only ended up frightening the participants of the previous event. By the time our discussion was due to begin, the far right had found themselves under the close supervision of the police. In the end, the discussion itself proved a success, although it did begin with the words: “Dear listeners – well, you can see the situation for yourselves…”
It should be understood that far right attacks on events and initiatives in Ukraine aren’t a recent phenomenon. In earlier years, for example, 1,500 Cossacks could gather to disrupt an LGBT event, while a gallery hosting an LGBT book presentation could simply be set on fire. Exhibitions were vandalised, film screenings flooded with gas, and participants in a human rights march attacked.
