On Sunday, the Central Headquarters for Saving Ukrainian Business Enterprise issued a statement accusing the authorities of obstructing businesspeople in various parts of the country from travelling to Kyiv for Monday’s protest against the Tax Code.

The Headquarters say that they are receiving reports that the police are obstructing vehicle processions from moving towards Kyiv; that officers of the Tax Inspectorate and Department for Fighting Economic Crime have been intimidating the administration of markets and business people, while the regulatory bodies have been carrying out frequent raids on markets or shopping centres, as well as other cases of “systematic pressure on businesspeople”.

They say that reliable sources have reported a ban on the planned protest on Monday and about possible “enforcement body counter-action” by police and the Kyiv City Administrative against the erection of a stage and equipment for the protest.

They stress that they will not be intimidated or stopped by such actions. They call on the authorities to stop putting pressure on businesspeople and allow them to exercise their constitutional right to protest within legally established boundaries.

Earlier UNIAN spoke to Oleksandr Danylyuk, a spokesperson for the Strike Committee of Businesspeople of Ukraine.

Mr Danylyuk stated that on Sunday at 17.00 in Pervomaisk (Mykolaiv region) people officers detained three mini vans carrying 60 people. After the officers spoke with the drivers, the latter refused to carry on. Those planning to take part in the demonstration were trying to find other transport companies to take them to Kyiv.

There was a similar situation in Zhytomyr where a group of people trying to get to Kyiv on 5 coaches found themselves without transport at the last minute, after the transport companies refused to take them.

This is not the first such occasion over recent months.

Protesters wishing to attend protest rallies in Kyiv organized by the opposition for 11 May were obstructed in similar fashion.

Then around 28 July, the Festival of the Baptism of Kyivan-Rus, against a background of fairly overt government support for the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Kyril, who was visiting Ukraine, there were similar reports of obstruction from believers faithful to the Kyiv Patriarchate.  The reports are worryingly similar, with transport companies, after “talks”, suddenly turning down work.  Other reports spoke of traffic police, without any test, or even real scrutiny, stopping coaches from going further, claiming the drivers were drunk.  More details can be found here: http://www.khpg.org/index.php?id=1280914081