High protest activity remains in Ukraine - sociologist
KYIV. Sept 11 (Interfax) - Six months following the change of government the protest activities in Ukraine decreased a little but it still remains high, monitoring held by the center of social and labor research in August 2014 showed.
"At least 690 protest events were registered in August, the traditional holiday month, and this excludes events happening in the framework of battles in Donbas. For comparison, a total of 271 and 297 protest events were registered in August 2012 and 2013 respectively. And ahead of Maidan in October 2013 a total of 423 protests were registered," deputy director of the center, sociologist Volodymyr Yschenko said at a news conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
The number of protests in August exceeds an average monthly figure for pre-Maidan period of 2013 (January 1 to November 30) by 1.5- to 3-fold, except for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea, he said.
So, 20% of protests attracted over 100 people, while the same figure in 2013 prior to Maidan was 24%.
Ideological issues - demonstrations for united Ukraine and against anti-Ukrainian actions of Russia (54%) - remain the most popular topic, the expert said.
Only 22% of protests raised different social and economic issues and in 2013, prior to Maidan, these issues were raised at 56% of rallies.
According to the sociologist, most patriotic demonstrations were registered in Donbass but were almost always small - up to 200 people. Only in Mariupol the number of protesters exceeded 1,000 people.
The level of confrontations and violent actions during protests is quite high and it exceeds even Maidan-period figures, Yschenko said.
In particular, out of all August protests 15% were violent and 40% were peaceful but confrontational, he said.
According to Yschenko, most popular forms of such protests are directed not at people but at symbols - attacking Soviet monuments or patriotic graffiti, Yschenko said.