Groysman calls on Avakov to respond to 'dirty political technologies' against democratic parties

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has called on Interior Minister Arsen Avakov to respond to "dirty political technologies" against democratic parties in media outlets and social media.

He said this at a government meeting on Wednesday, July 17, according to an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"In my opinion, an orchestrated and dirty political technology game has been launched in the past few weeks, and it has currently spread in the media and social networks. They ask people not to vote for democratic parties, because they do not pass the electoral threshold, but to vote only for one party of Petro Poroshenko. In my opinion, this is a manipulation and an attempt to fool the people," Groysman said.

He added that there are dozens of accounts on the Internet that are involved in these political technologies and are funded by "various non-political sources," that is, not from election funds.

"Today I want to appeal to you, Arsen Borysovych [Avakov], the National Police. [...] Absolutely all democratic political forces are being discredited today. [...] I expect law enforcement agencies to make a rather serious assessment of this issue," Groysman said, handing over materials on the use of the abovementioned political technologies to Avakov.

Avakov, in turn, said that the facts mentioned by Groysman "really exist" and that law enforcement agencies would provide information about a counter-advertising campaign not paid from election funds.

Early parliamentary elections in Ukraine will take place on July 21.

op