Resignation of Right Sector leader caused by conflict with Ukrainian authorities — expert
Earlier, Dmytro Yarosh wrote on Facebook that he is stepping down
KIEV, November 11. /TASS/. The decision of Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector extremist organization, which is banned in Russia, to step down could be connected with the authorities’ attempts to put the structure under state control, Ruslan Bortnik, the director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management, said Wednesday.
"The most real reason of Yarosh’s withdrawal from the Right Sector could be an attempt to ‘privatize’ this far-right, radical, nationalistic movement, establish on its basis a political structure that would accumulate all the rightist, would hold them under control, manipulate them to please these or those forces and political processes," Bortnik said.
Yarosh has been given the role of a ceremonial bystander in that process, he said. "He does not want to agree with that, but at the same time, most likely, he cannot directly clash with people who control the process, so he chose that form of resignation," Bortnik said.
In particular, he recalled, the authorities do not hurry to support Yarosh's idea to create a reserve army, and the issue of Yarosh’s structure becoming part of the Security Service of Ukraine is not being resolved.
"Meanwhile, the goal of Yarosh and his circle is to create a Ukrainian reserve army, and a relevant bill has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada," Bortnik said.
The leader of the Right Sector sees that reserve army as a "semi-state, semi-private public structure that has the right to possess weapons," but in such a form this formation is a serious threat to authorities, the expert said.
"So the conflict around the unclear status of Right Sector is motivation for Yarosh’s current demarche," Bortnik said.
Yarosh wrote on Facebook that he is stepping down.
"I bear personal responsibility for all that is happening in the organization, I can’t be a ceremonial bystander, so I am stepping down from the post of the Right Sector’s leader, remaining a nationalist and revolutionary," he said.
Yarosh explained his actions by a serious wound and differences in opinions with other Right Sector participants.