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While the world is outraged by the outrages of the US police, the Ukrainians are beginning to scream, fed up with enduring a much more criminal police. In Kiev, citizens have been protesting for days demanding the resignation of the Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, after a series of criminal cases involving the participation or negligence of law enforcement officers. The riots have reached the parliament environment today.

The wick ignited after learning what happened on May 23 in the Ukrainian city of Kaharlyk. A 26-year-old girl was taken to the police station for questioning as a witness to an alleged robbery. There, two police officers covered her face with a gas mask and handcuffed her, shot very close to her head, and then raped her several times during the night.

It was not the last scandal. A week later, in a Kiev suburb, about 100 armed men from two criminal gangs participated in a shooting that left several wounded . It happened in broad daylight and the 'wild east' scene was captured in videos that went viral on the internet. Even in a country like Ukraine, where crime continues to double the pulse of the government at times, it is hard to believe that 100 people can organize a shooting on their own.

In recent years, there have been cases in which the Ukrainian security forces have been accused of being involved in several notorious crimes or of allowing them with their negligence. Even from ruining the investigation to solve them.

The list of cases in which the law does not appear to exist is long. The one that caused the most shock was the death in 2018 of activist Kateryna Handzyuk, who was sprayed with acid and later died of complications during her recovery phase. Lawyer Iryna Nozdrovska was also murdered that year. Neither case has been fully clarified.

Most recent was the shooting death of a five-year-old boy by two police officers who were reportedly drunk and were shooting at targets with cans. It happened last year and the perpetrators were released on bail a month ago.

A political survivor

The mobilizations aim to end Avakov's political career ("Avak-off!", Protesters shout). To date, this cunning Kharkov-raised minister has proven to be a survivor. He was appointed to manage the Interior Ministry after the uprising that toppled Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich in 2014. When the current president, Volodimir Zelensky, defeated Petro Poroshenko last year, Avakov continued in his post as an alleged guarantee of order in the face of the arrival of a rookie president in politics. But it was also his connections with the elite that held him to the couch.

According to the Ukrainian publication 'NV', Avakov is the second most influential politician in the country after the president: in 2018 he appeared on his cover with a king's crown and a golden gavel. It controls most of Ukraine's police forces , from the National Police to local police departments, as well as the National Guard. Border guards, the coast guard, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Migration Service are also under the control of their ministry. About 200,000 men and women in total who should protect the citizen and are often a threat.

He has also been singled out for corruption within his department. But to date Avakov has managed to present itself as the only guarantee of maintaining order. "If I am not the minister, the system will fall," he has repeated several times. So far it has managed to maintain itself by supporting opposing sides in the dirty Ukrainian political struggle.

Today Avakov refused to apologize for the crimes of his police officers , according to the UNIAN agency. "Don't teach me how to love the motherland," she told a Golos party deputy, Inna Sovsun, who demanded that Avakov apologize for the latest rape and for the boy's murder. On the rape, Avakov said that what "those villains" [his agents] did is "only a reflection of Ukrainian society." And he asked not to blame all his men. Meanwhile, near the parliament, the protesters burned cars with their names written in graffiti that compare him to the devil.

Avakov has faced protests many times. But now the irritation comes from a broader spectrum: youth, human rights groups, and anti-corruption activists . Gay groups, and at the same time Ukrainian nationalists, are against him. And also legislators, some of them from President Zelensky's party. But it's a tough nut to crack. A campaign to collect signatures to force his cessation showed that opinions about him remain very divided and that he maintains important support in the Ukrainian Parliament.

Furthermore, the current president has more pressing problems for him than the police mafia. During these days the Ukrainian capital has also been the scene of protests against Zelensky for his alleged 'concessions' to the separatists in the Donbas war. Ukrainian media have published that several opposition mayors aspire to challenge him in the autumn elections. Zelensky aspires to survive 2020 and Avakov has a lot to teach him.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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