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What Kyiv's politics showed in late November 2018
Summary
A look back at two developments from the days before 22 November 2018: a renaming vote in parliament and an attack on a rally in Kyiv.
What did Ukrainian public life look like on 22 November 2018? Two events from the preceding days offered a snapshot.
On 20 November 2018, the Verkhovna Rada decided to rename Kirovohrad Oblast as Kropyvnytskyi Oblast. It then sent the draft law to the Constitutional Court. The step meant the change was not yet complete: the court still had to consider the proposal.
Two days earlier, on 18 November 2018, a planned transgender rights rally in Kyiv was attacked by far-right radicals. The incident showed that public gatherings in the capital could face violent opposition from organised extremist groups.
The two events were different in kind. One was a formal parliamentary procedure on how a region should be named. The other was a confrontation on the street over the right to assemble. Together they show a country handling questions of identity and public expression in both its institutions and its public spaces.
