Business New Europe: New Lugansk governor says 80-95% of region pro-Russian

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 31, 2014) The newly appointed governor of Lugansk, former interior minister Hennady Moskal, has said in an interview that 80-95% of the region is pro-Russian.

With over half of the region including the eponymous capital held by Russian-backed rebels, Moskal is now administrating the region from the town of Severodonetsk. Moskal, a highly regarded former interior minister under former president Viktor Yushchenko, subsequently a longserving MP, is personally popular in the region following a spell as governor in 2006.

“Speaking of pro-Russian sentiment, it is very high, in some towns 95%, in others 80%. Only in the historically Ukrainian parts of the region are they as low as 30%,” Moskal told a reporter at Ukrainskaya Pravda. “In Kyiv they think that the war has taught these people something. When I mention this in Kyiv they don’t believe me.”

Despite the high level of pro-Russian sentiment, Moskal said he did not expect Russia to annex the region as it had Crimea. “Russia needs unrecognised republics,” he said.

Key local companies owned by Russians are not operating, Moskal said. Alchevsk steelwork and Alchevsk coke plant, both owned by Russian state bank VTB are idling. According to Moskal, Russian state oil firm Rosneft has pumped all the oil out of its Lissichansky oil refinery, Ukraine’s second largest, and pumped in water, which will freeze in winter and destroy the facility.

Chemical giant Severodonetsk Azot, owned by gas oligarch Dmitry Firtash, is also not working, since Ukraine’s government has cut off its gas supply for political reasons, according to Moskal. The company is now paying only UAH6000-10,000 ($450-$700) in taxes per month to the city. These companies all support one-company towns Moskal said, adding “the death of the company is the death of the town.”

According to Moskal, the pro-Russian rebels holding wide swathes of Lugansk were not a united front, but comprise different groups controlling different towns. “Those [representatives of the self-proclaimed Lugank People’s Republic] who signed the Minsk peace accords [in September, leading to a ceasefire] do not control much of the territory,” he said.

Moskal said there was no money forthcoming from Kyiv to finance reconstruction in the areas controlled by Ukraine. He said his gross salary as governor of the region is UAH3500 ($270) per month, while heads of districts are paid UAH2400 ($192) per month.

“I will be here until the last bullet,” said Moskal, “if investment is allowed to come here.”