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The Donbas War and politics in cities on the front: Mariupol and Kramatorsk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Kimitaka Matsuzato
Kimitaka Matsuzato*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
*
*Email: kim@j.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Abstract

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This paper compares politics in two cities, Mariupol and Kramatorsk, located near the frontline between Ukraine-controlled Donetsk Oblast and the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). The DPR controlled these cities in the spring of 2014, but Ukraine recaptured them. Both cities are company towns, in which owners/managers of dominant factories, nicknamed job-givers, have a decisive voice in the city's decision-making. This paper compares how leaders of the two cities reacted to the expansion of Rinat Akhmetov's business empire before the Donbas War, and to DPR paramilitaries during the war. The two cities diverged decisively in the post-war reconstruction because Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko succeeded in splitting two major companies and making one of them pro-presidential in Kramatorsk. As a result, electoral politics in Kramatorsk became highly competitive, while one-party dominance of the Opposition Bloc (former Party of Regions) continues in Mariupol.

Keywords

the Donbas WarDonetsk OblastMariupolKramatorskcompany townthe Opposition Bloc
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 6: Special Section: The evolution of nationhood in 20th century Europe: Lessons from the Northern Adriatic borderlands , November 2018 , pp. 1008 - 1027
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

References

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