The banned Nash Krai party is set to resume its activities. Are they preparing for the elections?
9 July 2024 12:58
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
The Nash Krai party has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against its recognition as a pro-Russian party and a ban on its activities in Ukraine, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
At the same time, the party’s headquarters sent orders to its regional branches to prevent the dissolution of existing factions in local councils and to prevent deputies from resigning their mandates.
“Nash Krai” is a political party created by former members of the Party of Regions. Among the party’s co-founders are: Oleksandr Mazurchak, Yuriy Hranaturov, Oleksandr Feldman, Anton Kisse and Serhiy Kalsev.
Later, the current MP Serhiy Shakhov joined the party’s leadership.
Party banned
On 19 June, the Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal upheld the claims of the Ministry of Justice and banned the activities of the Nash Krai political party .
The court also ruled to transfer the party’s property, funds and assets to the state.
According to the SBU, this political force is involved in “subversive activities against Ukraine”, and several of its members began working in the Russian occupation administrations after Russia’s invasion.
“In particular, they spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda, called for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order, and some of the functionaries went over to the enemy and supported Russian military aggression,”
– the SBU stated in this regard.
The position of Nash Krai
“Nash Krai rejects the allegations, arguing that those named by the SBU are allegedly no longer affiliated with the party, and the political force allegedly “cannot be held responsible for its individual representatives”.
What is known about the Nash Krai party
“Nash Krai is a pro-Russian political party that was registered on 23 August 2011. Initially, the newly created party was called the “Blokovaya Party”, but it de facto appeared in 2014 when the “Blokovaya Party” was renamed to “Nash Krai”.
The party was co-founded by Oleksandr Mazurchak, Yuriy Hranaturov, Oleksandr Feldman, Anton Kisse and Serhiy Kalsev, who were members of the Party of Regions before the Revolution of Dignity.
“Nash Krai” was also unofficially called the “party of mayors”, as it elected many mayors in the 2015 elections.
A number of mayors who until recently represented the Party of Regions also joined the party. These include former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Saldo, former Mariupol mayor Yuriy Hotlubey, former Berdiansk mayor Volodymyr Chepurnyi, former mayors of Boryspil Anatoliy Fedorchuk and Chernihiv Oleksandr Sokolov.
In the early parliamentary elections in the summer of 2019, three representatives of the party became MPs of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the IX convocation: Anton Kissé, Valeriy Davydenko and Serhiy Shakhov.
In the 2020 local elections, Nash Krai took seventh place with 1,937 seats in local councils.
In June 2022, the SBU uncovered a scheme in which the party’s chairman and the head of its territorial branch sold a seat to the Verkhovna Rada for $2.5 million.
