--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -5,9 +5,10 @@ Maintainer: Yaroslav Halchenko <debian@o
 Build-Depends:
  debhelper (>= 9)
  , debhelper (>= 9.20160709) | dh-systemd
- , python3
- , python3-pyinotify
+ , python
+ , python-pyinotify
  , sqlite3
+ , dh-python
 Homepage: http://www.fail2ban.org
 Vcs-Git: git://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban.git -b debian
 Vcs-Browser: http://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban
@@ -16,8 +17,8 @@ Standards-Version: 4.1.3
 
 Package: fail2ban
 Architecture: all
-Depends: ${python3:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}, lsb-base (>=2.0-7)
-Recommends: python, iptables, whois, python3-pyinotify, python3-systemd
+Depends: ${python:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}, lsb-base (>=2.0-7)
+Recommends: python, iptables, whois, python-pyinotify
 Suggests: mailx, system-log-daemon, monit, sqlite3
 Description: ban hosts that cause multiple authentication errors
  Fail2ban monitors log files (e.g. /var/log/auth.log,
@@ -39,5 +40,5 @@ Description: ban hosts that cause multip
   - whois -- used by a number of *mail-whois* actions to send notification
     emails with whois information about attacker hosts. Unless you will use
     those you don't need whois
-  - python3-pyinotify -- unless you monitor services logs via systemd, you
+  - python-pyinotify -- unless you monitor services logs via systemd, you
     need pyinotify for efficient monitoring for log files changes
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -9,13 +9,13 @@
 # Uncomment this to turn on verbose mode.
 export DH_VERBOSE=1
 
-export PYBUILD_DISABLE_python2=1
+export PYBUILD_DISABLE_python3=1
 
 %:
-	dh $@ --with python3,systemd --buildsystem pybuild
+	dh $@ --with python2 --buildsystem pybuild
 
 DESTDIR=$(CURDIR)/debian/fail2ban
-PYVERSION=$(shell py3versions -dv)
+PYVERSION=$(shell pyversions -dv)
 
 override_dh_clean:
 	rm -rf fail2ban.egg-info
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ override_dh_install:
 	: # Install bash completion
 	install -d $(DESTDIR)/etc/bash_completion.d
 	install -m 644 files/bash-completion $(DESTDIR)/etc/bash_completion.d/fail2ban
-	: # Install systemd files
+	: # Install systemd files, even in backport version just in case even though
+	: # other systemd preparation activities are not carried out
 	install -d $(DESTDIR)/lib/systemd/system
 	install -d $(DESTDIR)/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d
 	install -m 644 build/fail2ban.service $(DESTDIR)/lib/systemd/system