Paul Manafort, who had been heading the political campaigns of the Party of Regions since 2005, was sacked from the electoral heaquarters. The reason is that the party’s rating began to fall. Now “regionals” are working out two scenarios to frustrate the election, according “Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya” daily.
According to the newspaper’s sources, the Party of Regions headquarters made a final decision to sack the American spin doctor after the party headquarters chiefs realized that the party’s rating fell by 5-7% nearly 10 days ago.
Namely at that time, PoR recalled its old slogans – to give the state status to the Russian language, and began to use anti-NATO rhetorics. On 19 September PoR claimed that it may refuse from taking part in the electoral campaign. On the eve of it, Party of Regions adherents began to pitch tents and construct a stage at the Maydan Nezalezhnosti Square in the center of Kyiv. Besides, on 21 September the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution in support of the orange revolution achievements in Ukraine.
Paul Manafort is close to the USA Republican Party. “The dismissal of Manafort, who I know personally very well, was an expected decision”, said Victor Ukolov, BYuT spin doctor (#147 in the electoral list). According to him, during the last three-five years, the Party of Regions’ rating has significantly fallen in the east of the country. “During the last two weeks, the “regionals” have been looking for a scapegoat, and chose Paul Manafort”, V.Ukolov believes. “I was confident that they would sack their HQ chief Borys Kolesnikov, or some of his deputies, because Paul is a real professional, but “regionals” did not listen to his advice”, the BYuT spin doctor says.
According to the information of Taras Beresovts, chief editor of “Polittekh” project, the decision to sack Paul Manafort from the electoral campaign was made in the Party of Regions headquarter last week. “To blame foreigners for the failure of the campaign is the simplest way, because blaming Kolesnikov means blaming Akhmetov”, the expert notes. According to him, the party is now considering two scenarios of the further developments: to cancel voting results in some western district on the basis of alleged mass falsifications, and to resume talks about creating an autonomy of eastern and southern regions of Ukraine.
Vassyl Khara (#28 in the Party of Regions list) could not say anything about the dismissal of Paul Manafort. “I was against involving Americans in our work since the very beginning. This was the reason why I left the post of the HQ chief as early as in 2005. It is hard for me to believe that the people, who do not know our special features, and no one know who they are working for – for us or our rivals, can be fair. If they were sacked, it happened too late”, he stressed.
