Chi è (e chi era) Pavel Yurevich Gubarev?

Secondo Wikipedia, "Pavel Yurevich Gubarev (Russian: Па́вел Ю́рьевич Гу́барев, pronounced [ˈpavʲɪl ˈjurʲɪvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈgubərʲɪf], Ukrainian: Павло Юрійович Губарєв), born 10 February 1983, in Sievierodonetsk) is a pro-Russian figure in Ukraine, and became the 'People's Governor' of the Donetsk Region at the Regional Assembly on 3 March 2014, after separatists seized the building. Gubarev had earlier declared himself leader of the Donbass People's Militia. Gubarev was not a major figure in local politics prior to the beginning of the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine".

Già, ma chi *era*?

1. In Donetsk the flag-raiser was Pavel Gubar[e]v, a Russian nationalist (and Ukrainian citizen) who declared himself to be the people’s governor. After he was arrested by Ukrainian authorities, he was presented as a hero and a martyr on Russian television. In Donetsk Gubarov was known as a neo-Nazi and as a member of the fascist organization Russian National Unity (http://web.archive.org/web/20140317211808/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117048/crimean-referendum-was-electoral-farce).

2. Russian National Bolsheviks have, incidentally, been calling on the faithful to defend the Kremlin line on the Crimea.They have also supported Pavel Gubarev, a former member of the neo-Nazi, Russian chauvinist Russian National Unity movement who in early March, called on the Kremlin to send troops into the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine (http://web.archive.org/web/20140408212005/http://iwpr.net/report-news/far-right-recruited-crimea-poll-observers).

3. Gubarev and friends (http://web.archive.org/web/20140410234928/http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/russias-deep-ties-to-donetsks-kremlin-collaborators-342833.html)

The first massive pro-Russian rallies were held in Donetsk on March 1 and 3. Citizens of Russia also took part in them.

In Donetsk, Pavel Gubarev, a Ukrainian citizen and former member of the Russian National Unity movement, attempted to head the protest. However, on March 6 he was arrested on suspicion of separatism and the violent overthrow of the constitutional order.

Gubarev is 31. He was born in Luhansk Oblast’s Severodonetsk. In 2005, he graduated from Donetsk National University with a major in history.

In 2006 he was elected to Kuibyshev district council from Natalia Vitrenko’s Bloc People’s Opposition. In his autobiography he mentions that after becoming acquainted with the facts of “bureaucratic arbitrariness” he resigned in protest. He actively participated in various election campaigns as a campaign staffer.

Since 2007 he had been working in advertising as director of an agency. During the same period he obtained degrees in management and governance.

Despite being a leader of Donetsk separatists, Gubarev says that he had not been planning to enter politics, “but the arbitrariness of the Nazi militants” forced him to change his course. He assembled an entourage that included Russian nationalist radicals and militants.

For instance, the former head of the Moscow Shield organization, Alexey Khudyakov, actively took part in rallies in Donetsk next to Gubarev. Khudyakov was a suspect in a criminal case involving an attack by Russian radical nationalists on a hostel in Moscow where migrants lived.

Khudyakov escaped from liability for the September raid through Russian President Vladimir Putin-ordered amnesty in December. Due to the same amnesty, Pussy Riot and Greenpeace activists were also released. Khudyakov had been charged with “hooliganism committed by a group of people by prior agreement.”

According to eyewitnesses and Russian media, Moscow Shield was violent. In one of the videos from the raid, it can be seen that some of organization’s members were armed with handguns. There were also skinheads among them.

Khudyakov is not the only right-wing Russian radical noticed in Donetsk. The head of the Sverdlovsk regional branch of the political party Other Russia, Rostislav Zhuravlev, also was among the participants of Donetsk protests.

This party is not registered in Russia because of its radical views. Representatives of this party, led by the notorious Russian writer and politician Eduard Limonov, seized the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow on March 17, as the party boasted on its website. This party also actively participated in anti-Ukrainian agitation in Crimea in anticipation of an unrecognized referendum held on March 16, which led to the annexation of the peninsula and its accession to Russia.

On March 3 “other-Russian” Zhuravlev was present at the negotiations of the protesters with the head of Donetsk regional department of SBU Valeriy Ivanov, although, as he mentioned in his Twitter, he was there as a ‘journalist.’

Until recently, the pro-Russian movement in Donetsk Oblast had been highly marginalized. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, only 0.4 percent of the population voted for the radical Russian Bloc. By comparison, the bloc got 5.5 percent of the votes in Crimea’s Sevastopol, the base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

While there are representatives of openly pro-Russian parties in the Crimean Parliament, you will not find them in Donetsk Oblast or its city council.

Nevertheless, in the wake of the EuroMaidan Rvolution in Ukraine that toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, these views have seriously gained momentum.

According to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on Feb. 8-18, 33.2 percent of respondents in Donetsk Oblast believe that Ukraine and Russia should unite in one state; in Crimea, 41 percent responded that way.

4. [Trad. dal russo:]  "In Donetsk Gubarov was known as a neo-Nazi and as a member of the fascist organization Russian National Unity" (http://web.archive.org/web/20140413141949/http://ru.tsn.ua/politika/rossiya-stanovitsya-nacistskoy-fashisty-ubivayut-migrantov-ne-priznayut-ukrainu-i-prizyvayut-k-diversiyam-359854.html).

Insomma, toh, questo "antifascista" era (era?) un neo-nazista, membro di un partito affiliato all'Internazionale Nazionalsocialista. Ma chi l'avrebbe mai immaginato? :)