MAIDAN AND A UKRANIAN STORY OF A LASTING FRAUD

Ukraine 2003, the story of a fraud …

In the summer of 2003, a statement by the League for the Revolutionary Party – Communist Organization for the Fourth International (LRP-COFI), denounced as a fraud the Ukrainian organization «Revolutionary Workers Organization» (RWO), which had recently been accepted as a full member organization of COFI. It “in fact never existed as a genuine organization. Its «members» and «leaders,» some of whom we had met more than once, were part of the overall scam”.The statement continued: “incontrovertible evidence has been uncovered demonstrating that a group of purported «revolutionaries» in Ukraine has perpetrated a fraud upon at least ten far left organizations internationally, and probably far more. These sinister elements have misrepresented themselves as members of political groups in Ukraine which claim to be in agreement with a wide variety of different and opposing left tendencies. The same individuals passed themselves off as members and leaders of multiple organizations. To convince international organizations of their false political identities and affiliations, they published fake leaflets and periodicals purporting to express their views and criticisms of various international organizations and other non-existent Ukrainian groups. They reported on activities they supposedly carried out in furtherance of their purported views and participated in extensive political discussions with their international affiliates….

…By means of this present statement we wish to warn the workers’ movement and far left organizations everywhere that a criminal fraud by sinister elements located in Ukraine is being perpetrated upon the working class and the socialist movement around the world.

The scam began to unravel when the Socialist Party of Great Britain {World Socialist Movement WSM} exposed the fact that they were among the organizations deceived. Their statement is available on the internet (see point »4. Emergency Business»)…

…One evident reason for the bizarre conspiracy was to obtain money from abroad, cashing in by pointing to the very real poverty of the Ukrainian working class. Given the sums involved, it is likely that theft was not the only reason for the scam. We do not know at this point whether it was organized by the Ukrainian secret police or the agencies of other governments. Nor do we know yet whether the perpetrators were simply common thieves”.

The statement denounced Oleg (Oleh) Vernik, a prominent member of the Ukraine section of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), “identified as one of the leading perpetrators of the scam. It was reported in early August that the CWI has suspended the leadership of its Ukrainian section and has announced that it will conduct a full investigation as to whether or not this group was behind the sinister operation”. (CWI’s statement is at the APPENDIX section of the above link from SPGB)

As demonstrated by the report of SPGB, the fraud was revealed when some Russian warned SPGB that its «fraternal» organization, which allegedly had been founded in 2000, was actually a ghost. The SPGB identified through photographs that Vernik was the same person who had been presented to them as Semyon Shevchenko, even taking part in an international meeting of WSM (the international alliance of SPGB) in Britain in 2002, as leader of the alleged fraternal ghost – party in Ukraine, the World Socialist Party of Ukraine (WSP). The identification was confirmed by a member of the Belgian CWI and led to an internal investigation of the CWI.

And then the tangle began to unravel … Various -mostly- British and American organizations and their small «internationals» started investigating, only to discover that their alleged fraternal organizations in Ukraine were a …scam! Apart from the LRP-COFI and SPGB-WSM, the Workers Power – League for the Fifth International (WP-L5I), Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL), Workers Revolutionary Party, Marxist-humanists of US(News and Letters Committees-NLC), International Bolshevik Tendency (IBT), International Trotskyist Opposition (ΙΤΟ), Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), Internationalist Group – League for the Fourth International (IG-LFI), New Union Party (NUP), International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party (IBRP) {nowadays know as Internationalist Communist Tendency (ICT)}, possibly others too, discovered that their «fraternal» organizations (under several fictitious names, «YRM» / «RKO» / «RWO» / «RV» / «UTO» / «UWG» / «RKU,» etc.) were actually “cloaks”, staged by the same persons, who presented themselves with different names as their leaders!

Detailed reports of the «technical» specifics of the fraud were given here by the IG-LFI, here by the LRP-COFI, by the SPGB here and here by the IBT. Statements denouncing that they had been victims of the fraud were issued by Workers Power, AWL, IBRP, and SLP.

Deictic references were also made by the ICL-FI, the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), the Red & Black Notes -a Canadian libertarian, socialist magazine– and the Russian magazine Left Russia.

It was confirmed that Oleg (Oleh) Vernik, leading member of the Ukrainian WR/CWI, also member of the International Executive Committee (IEC) of the CWI, was simultaneously Semyon Shevchenko of WSP/WSM, Yakovof the RWO/COFI, Vitaliy of YRM/IBT, Mikhail of the RCO/IG-LFI and Viktor the UWG/NLC!!!

Boris Pastukhof WR/CWI was also Vasily Dmitrulin of RCO/IG-LFI, Alexander Sherbakov of YRM/IBT, Vasily the RC/IG-LFI, Ihor Pugachov of UWG/NCL and Ivan of WSP/WSM .

Oleksandr Zvorsky was Viktor Voronov of RWO/COFI, Serhey Novikov of WSP/WSM and Vadym Yevtushok the UWG/NCC.

Zakhar Popovych of WR/CWI was Alexandr of RCO/IG-LFI and of UWG/NLC.

Lyosha, Oleksiy, Marsha were also identified as … multiple personalities, and some others too.
Besides the Ukrainians, who conducted their internationalist … businesses through an… «International Department» they had set up within the Ukrainian WR/CWI, it was proven that there also was a Russian swindler, Ilya Budraitskis, at that time member of the Executive Committee of the «CIS Section» of CWI (ie the section of the CWI which includes all Commonwealth of Independent States – ‘CIS’, excluding Ukraine) and the Russian National Committee of the CWI. He was the same man, who had, at the same period, attended meetings in Kiev with a delegation of IG-LFI as the.. Russian comrade Dmitri, with a delegation of IBT as the Ukrainian comrade .. Ivan, and had also participated in an international conference of COFI in Warsaw as the… Russian comrade Igor! Budraitskis was changing nationalities along with names!

CWI in its initial statement – which promised a thorough investigation – had stated that both the CIS-CWI and their international leadership were unaware of what was happening in Ukraine. In 29/8/2003 the International Secretariat of the CWI announced that the accusations concerning their Ukrainian section were indeed well founded and ordered the immediate suspension of Oleg Vernik, Boris Pastukh, Zakhar Popovich, Alexander Zvorskiy, Yuri Baranov, Yaroslav Ganzenko, Alexei Aryabinskiy, and the re-organisation the Ukrainian WR/CWI.

The deceived organizations insisted on Ilya Budraitskis. The IEC of CWI on 24/11/03 issued a statement confirming that Budraitskis admitted that “he was drawn in to participating in meetings organised by the so-called «International Department» in Kiev. Ilya accepts his involvement was a serious mistake and deeply regrets his actions and the damage he has caused to the CWI in the CIS and internationally. … The IS strongly condemns Ilya’s actions. However, the IS recognises, on the basis of our investigation and Ilya’s statements, that Ilya did not act as an organiser of the «International Department» frauds. Although Ilya was completely wrong to take any part in the activities of the ‘International Department’, he did not act as one of its instigators…
Taking these factors into account, the IS proposes the following disciplinary actions: Ilya is removed from membership of the CIS EC and Russian Committee for a period of at least six months. After this time the issue will be rediscussed. Ilya does not represent the CWI internationally in any way until otherwise decided by the CWI. In his work as part of the Moscow organisation Ilya works under the discipline of the Moscow Committee and other leading bodies of the section”.
The deceived organizations reacted to this decision. On 03/08/04 the IBT wrote: “Budraitskis is a proven liar and a thief. If the CWI leaders were merely naive, rather than unprincipled cynics, they would have automatically expelled him when his involvement came to light. They would also have prepared a detailed and factual account that named names and attempted to “follow the money.” Instead of trying to get to the bottom of this criminal hoax, the CWI has only offered vague, self-amnestying explanations. The leniency toward Budraitskis, the refusal to seriously investigate this scandal involving senior CWI cadres, the stonewalling and the lack of cooperation with the investigations of other organizations, form a pattern for which there can be no innocent explanation”.

IBT (and others) assumed that CWI -at the best case scenario- wanted to cover Budraitskis in order to also cover Rob Jones, the full timer of CIS-CWI. The CWI claimed that it had no full timer in Ukraine. In Russia, however, it had (and still has) Rob Jones, with whom Budraitskis was comradely associated. (photo: Budraitskis on the left and Rob Jones on the right).
In its letter of 09/09/03 addressed to CWI, IBT asked: “Can you give any information as to how far this conspiracy extended? Certainly it extended rather further than your statement admits, and was by no means confined to the Kiev branch of your organisation. It is clear that Ilya Budraitskis, perhaps the most prominent Moscow-based representative of your tendency, was an integral part of this scam. He made numerous trips to Kiev to participate in the fraud. What did other leading members of the CWI in Moscow make of these visits? How did they believe these trips were financed? Were the suspicions of your representative Robert Jones not aroused? What did he think Ilya Budraitskis was doing in Kiev so frequently? How did he think Ilya Budraitskis could afford those trips? Has comrade Jones visited Kiev in the last four years? How often? Did he not notice anything untoward?”

The letter was resent twice. CWI did not answer, neither mentioned anything related to these questions in its statement on Budraitskis.

 Ukraine 2013/4: it’s water under the bridge!
Long live Maidan and let bygones be bygones!

 In 2005 there was a split of the Russian organization of CWI, and some members established a new organization called VPERED. In February 2008, VPERED, received the status of «permanent observer» by the United Secretariat of the 4th International (USEC) and in February 2010 became the official section of USEC in Russia. The Russian organization of CWI split again in 2009 over the issue of South Ossetia. One part kept the name of the organization, Workers Resistance, and the other which stayed faithful to the CWI was rebuilt titled «Russian Section of CWI». In 2011 VREPED and Workers Resistance fused to form the Russian Socialist Movement (RSM), which has become the new Russian section of the Fourth International.
The political career of Ilya Budraitskis, was apparently not disturbed neither by the «unfortunate» incident of his participation in an obvious fraud nor by the six-months caress-penalty imposed on him by CWI. However he did not stay with the CWI for long. He probably left during the split of 2005. We haven’t been able to verify this for sure. The “beagles” of western “pro-Maidan…ists” who interview him often, could ask him in order to clarify this detail. However in 2006 he appeared as a member of VPERED in a «Conference on the Future of the Ukrainian Left» , and since then he is definitely one of the leaders of VPERED, as USEC lets us know.

It is on the articles of Ilya Butraitskis that USEC bases its analysis about the…»mass uprising» in Ukraine , the Ukrainian Maidan that is fighting for a better society, the «Left Sector» to be built within the Maidan movement and the mortal danger of Russian intervention. Whom leader, of course, the other contributors of the above … anticapitalist line, of the International Socialist Tendency (IST), fail not to use as a source of confirmation of their analysis (anybody who would just check the internet would easily find many references to Budraitskis in various sections of IST).

But anyway, we shouldn’t be so strict. Maybe “comrade” Ilya, sincerely repented for his actions. Or maybe the CWI comrades, who were so forgiving, knew something. That’s what we first thought and we decided to keep a grip on ourselves. But then while “surfing” through the facebook account of Budraitskis we surprisingly found out that amongst a wide range of “friends” the following were also included: Zakhar Popovych, Alexander Zvorskiy, Aleksey Aryabinsky, Borys Pastukh, Oleg Vernik! We wouldn’t take an oath about Aryabinsky and Zvorskiy because we couldn’t find any photos available for the respective gentlemen of 2003. It may be a coincidence. The other three gentlemen however, are those who “had drawn” cde Ilya, to take part in the fraud. It is a weird thing for someone to maintain friendship with the swindlers who “had drawn” him into a fraud, isn’t it?!

The most striking of all, however, is the fact that these swindlers still present themselves as militants, trade unionists and leaders of revolutionary organizations! We will deal only with the case of Popovych, because it is the most obvious. The truth is that the report of marxist.com quoted above, mentioned that in this «conference on the future of the Ukrainian Left» there was a Zakhar Popovych that made a speech. But maybe, once again, this was devilish coincidence.

But Zakhar Popovych who spoke at at the House of Commons in London on 10 March, of which a video is presented by the IST, is not a namesake. He is the swindler of 2003. He is Zakhar Popovych of 2003, who is nowadays a «leading member» of the Ukrainian organization Left Opposition which has so far contributed greatly … as a source of information … to the “pro-Maidan” Left and Autonomy about the “social revolution” that took place in Ukraine.

This is the organization that to the eyes of SEK(Greek section of IST) represents the anticapitalist Left in Ukraine. It is the same organization the theses of which where propounded by USEC. He is the gentleman who informed us that he went in person with his red flag to Maidan and although the fascists also have some strength there, though … «the Left also strengthen themselves! This revolution is very different from the Orange revolution of 2004. This revolution is loud!». He is the same person that was interviewed under the eloquent title «a mass uprising for democracy,» by the French NPA, an interview proudly propounded by USEC.

It is true that anyone who would try to find out a little more about the Ukrainian and Russian Left would probably suspect that it is not full of righteous characters and crystal clear political courses. At least, that’s what we noticed through a small research. But the case of Budraitskis and Popovych is not about suspicions. It is plain as a pikestaff. So they should think twice, those who are ready to shout about “conspiracy theories” .

Those gentlemen of the CWI– who so mercifully «absolved» Budraitskis- aren’t they aware of the fact that the leader of Left Opposition is Zakhar Popovych, the man that they had expelled from their organization as a «disgraceful swindler»?

Those gentlemen of USEC, aren’t they familiar with the past of their Russian leader?
Those gentlemen of IST, don’t they know about the past of their honorable guest?
The problem is not technical or personal. It is political. It concerns the very essence of the their statements but also the ease and confidence with which those parts of the European Left took their position on the issue of Ukraine, even accusing anyone who dared to take a different stance as «exaggerating», naive, or even a mouthpiece of Putin.

Indeed, it is no time anymore for naivety …

TeoCubanos

Στα ελληνικά: Το Μαϊνταν και μια ουκρανική ιστορία διαρκούς απάτης…