The Napoleonic principle "He who owns Paris owns all of France" has not lost actuality. What happened five years ago only proved the correctness of this maxim. Therefore, both the Regions and BYT stay on more or less comparable state of alert: according to WeeklyUA sources each of the camps is ready to take up to 50 thousand of own supporters out to the streets
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Photo: PHL |
To get a clearer picture of the money that will have to be forked in on the "new revolution" one must factor in the following basic figures. The Maidan can accommodate about 150 thousand people. To become effective, the rallies must definitely last longer than one afternoon or even a week. The basic events of the Orange Revolution, if you recall, lasted three weeks, Maidan-2 circa 2007 stood for almost two months. For an impressive television picture, Maidan rallies must gather at least 50 thousand people. Even if a half of them will take part in the actions out of principle, and the another half will receive only "forage money", a day of the "revolution", in which only the most ordinary and not demanding supporters of any of the contenders will take part, will run into UAH 1.250 million (25 thousand participants times 50 hryvnia that in the capital are just enough to feed a most humble protester). But it is a bottom line minimum.
Another critical consideration is that weather people promise really severe frosts in February so even 50 thousand guest performers must be accommodated in something more substantial than tents or buses. A bed in a cheapest hostel will hardly cost less than 70 hryvnia a night.
Protest estimates
So, an average participant of "protest actions" on the capital´s Maidan will hardly cost less than UAH 100-150 a day. Double this sum to add to organizational expenses the daily allowances that will need to be paid to the "demonstrators".
Participants of the "night vigil" will be one and a half-two times more expensive. The only way to economize here will be by sending a great bulk of Maidan protesters to sleep in buses.
"Flying brigades" i.e. activists that stick leaflets around town or draw politically correct graffiti, will charge minimum two hundred hryvnia a day.
The most expensive "workforce" are bound to be street fighters, who are expected to be much more numerous at the February Maidan than they were 5 years ago. The good news is that the charges for such services have dropped considerably. While in the late 2005, when representatives of the Progressive Socialist Party and Association of Ukrainian Nationalists clashed in the downtown Kyiv, the fee for participation in the disorders was at USD 1 thousand, according to political expert Taras Berezovets, today the price of a street fighter will be much more lower. It is already known, that a part the brawls (dispersal of rallies of opponents, clashes with the police, picturesque commotions on Khreschatyk or under the Verkhovna Rada walls) will cost USD 300 maximum.
Cultural events are a separate article of expenses. Organizers can save up on the scaffold scene, which five years ago was a genuine symbol of the protests. Why wasting hundreds of thousand hryvnia on renting the steel and plastic construction when honchos can speak to the crowds from a simple improvised dais just as well? Both Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych have demonstrated this quite recently, although with different levels of success. Instead of the live "singing panties" with their exorbitant fees, organisers may use canned music from loudspeakers the way the Regions are doing these days in front of the parliament.
To recap, an average sum that the loser of the race will have to cough up for a Maidan protester a day will be from 40 to 60 dollars. With 50 thousand persons needed only in Kyiv, the defeat in the run-off will cost the sponsors of one of the candidates a pretty penny of USD 2-3 million a day. Considering that at least two or three weeks will be needed to announce a second run-off, the costs of the Kyiv rallies will run into USD 60-65 million. Quite comparable to what the campaigns of Tymoshenko and Yanukovych cost, but surely incomparable to the benefits that the winner will get.
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