Protest Car Rally not allowed into Dnipropetrovsk

The Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administrative Court has banned a car rally by small business owners from passing through Dnipropetrovsk as part of a nationwide protest against the Tax Code..  

This was reported to the media by one of those planning to attend, Oleksandr Zakharov, a Dnipropetrovsk businessman. He said that six cars moving in a cavalcade from Zaporizhya were stopped by the traffic police near the entrance to Dnipropetrovsk. The traffic police officers read the drivers the court order and asked them not to drive into the city as one formation.

Mr Zakharov added that around 60 business owners from Dnipropetrovsk had been waiting on the outskirts of the city so as to drive together in procession through Dnipropetrovsk.

They decided to drive to the centre individually in order to there take part in a protest by business owners against the actions of Prime Minister Azarov’s government.

He said that all six cars with protesters took part in the rally, and will now head to Kryvy Rih, joining up as a cavalcade outside the city. One car from Dnipropetrovsk will be joining them.

Zakharov said that this is the first time they have encountered a court ban, and that in Zaporizhya the protest had gone ahead as planned and without incidents. Dozens of business owners had joined the rally which had been accompanied through the city by the traffic police. The protesters had been received by the Deputy Head of the Zaporizhya Regional Administration, Petro Honcharuk.

The Nationwide Car Rally by business owners began on 21 March  Cars set off from Lviv and Luhansk, planning to reach Kyiv on 25 March.  The protesters are stopping in cities where protest rallies are held demanding that the government revoke the norms of the Tax Code which they allege effectively destroys small and middle level business in Ukraine.