Of bad roads and... “alternative ways”

August 24 was to become the day when Kyiv would host its first ever international competition in triathlon and sprint race, to be held under the auspices of the Continental Triathlon League. The organizers laid the course of the races in the city’s historic district, so that the sprint race and cycling stage of the triathlon event would start in Podil, while running stage’s track would go along Sahaidachnoho Street and Volodymyrsky Descent to Yevropeiska Square and Khreshchatyk Street. Registration and entry fee collection were in full swing on August 6 when Kiev Triathlon Cup’s organizing committee received a letter from the SPD stating that the competition could not go forward. The organizers quoted the letter on the event’s official website. The reason for cancellation it mentions looks very interesting: the competition could not go forward, “because the proposed running track is used for the president of Ukraine’s movements around the city on Independence Day. Rerouting is not possible because of poor road surface conditions in Kyiv.” The organizers canceled the event and promised to return the entry fees to participants in five days. “The organizing committee sincerely apologizes for this unforeseen development!” the statement on its official website reads.

The situation seemed so absurd to us that we doubted if it even was genuine at first. The Day asked the competition’s organizers for clarification and received confirmation of the cancellation. “Yes, it is true,” the project’s director Ihor Lukashchuk told us, “we had been asked to change the race’s venue, but decided to cancel it altogether. We do not want to move it, because, firstly, this was to be an international competition involving foreign athletes, and therefore changing its route would be unprofessional. And secondly, Kyiv has no real replacement route...” Lukashchuk said, he could not forecast how this situation would affect the prospects of Kyiv’s hosting international competitions in the future. In the meantime, the director remarked, “both the athletes and international organizers support us.”

“There are several important messages in this letter,” political analyst, civic activist, and journalist Ostap Kryvdyk commented. “Firstly, the presidential protection detail has confirmed the fact that Kyiv cannot get its roads in order, so the president has only one route to use. Secondly, it looks like Viktor Yanukovych’s helicopter is used for some other purposes or is part of a money laundering scheme, for it was actually bought or leased for these fabulous millions in annual payments just for the situation we are facing now. The same motivation was behind constructing that controversial helipad near the Verkhovna Rada building.” Kryvdyk also stressed that this situation is “a bad signal to those who would like to see Yanukovych changing for the better. His support services, including the SPD, pay no attention to the issues Yanukovych is working on now, when he talks much about European integration. However, European integration is incompatible with canceling sporting events because of ‘unfortunate developments,’ European integration requires a politician to serve the people and look for alternative solutions which would not interfere with people’s lives. Therefore, if Yanukovych really stands for European integration, he should do a better job of instructing his subordinate officials on Ukraine’s current priorities, and adjust his daily life accordingly,” the analyst believed.

For her part, director of the NGO Center for Civil Liberties Oleksandra Matviichuk addressed the legality of such restrictions. “We still have no proper regulation of these unprecedented roadblocks that would determine who has the right to set them and in what order, their duration, and why ambulances have to wait until a government motorcade passes? There is no clarity on this issue. However, when compared with democratic nations with free and secure citizenry, they, of course, have no such roadblocks,” the human rights activist explained. She also believed the remark on the road conditions to be a quite telling one. “It is certainly very significant that there is one person in this country who finds our roads impossible to drive on while all other Ukrainians have no choice but to do so. It brings to mind those pictures in social networks and the media showing mayors and parliamentarians using public transport or cycling to work daily in other countries... People live better in these countries, too, while our fellow citizens are used to tolerating a lot of abuse and are sometimes not ready to defend our dignity. They resent these motorcades, honk their horns at them, but no one sends queries on grounds for setting a roadblock. At least I am not aware of anybody trying to challenge these restrictions in court. I hope that this situation when an international sports event was canceled because the president of Ukraine could not use his nation’s roads will cause response from the public,” Matviichuk summed up.