The current president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, won the presidential election in April last year and took the highest position in the country, receiving 75% of the vote, and his newly created party won a majority in the Parliament. Only one year has passed, but Zelensky’s future no longer seems as rosy as a year ago, because he could not fulfill a single promise.
“Confident rhetoric about cardinal changes in Ukraine has turned into a whisper. Only a year has passed, and the president seems tired and overwhelmed. And such changes are observed not only in his tone. His staff also changed significantly. Zelensky in March and April fired his prime minister, inclined to reform, most of his team, the attorney general and many other high-ranking officials, causing widespread bewilderment. The time for this was too bad: a global coronavirus pandemic could well absorb up to 8.2% of its GDP, and Zelensky’s new team has people without experience”, – writes The National Interest, an American magazine.
The publication notes that in May the head of the independent supervisory board of JSC “Gas Pipelines of Ukraine”, an independent company that controls gas transportation, was dismissed, and in July, the head of the National Bank resigned, citing political pressure. Then Tomas Fiala, head of Dragon Capital, Ukraine’s largest investment company, said he would suspend all future investments.
The author of the article, Melinda Haring, deputy director of the Eurasia Center in the Atlantic Council, tried to answer the question what went wrong and found five reasons for this that could explain the strange permutations around Zelensky.
Firstly, the author is confident that Zelensky is the puppet of oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, the former owner of the largest bank in the country – PrivatBank, which was nationalized in 2016. Since then, the oligarch has been doing everything possible to return the bank. Melinda Haring has no doubts that the current president and millionaire Kolomoisky have no doubts: after all, immediately after the presidential election, Kolomoisky returned to Ukraine, although he lived abroad several years before.
“Zelensky did nothing to bring Kolomoisky to court, and the newly appointed prosecutor general opened 24 criminal cases against his predecessor Petro Poroshenko”, – according to The National Interest, all this is irrefutable evidence of the “close relationship” between the head of state and the millionaire .
The second reason is the version according to which Zelensky is also a puppet, but this time – of the Russian Federation. The author admits that this is a version of nationalists from Western Ukraine and representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States and Canada. The reasons for this, in their opinion, are sufficient. Firstly, the Russian-speaking president is not a native speaker of the Ukrainian language, secondly, he never publicly condemned Putin, which is already a suspicious fact, thirdly, he constantly says that it is necessary to end the war in Donbass and is ready to show flexibility, which neither the diaspora, nor the inhabitants of Western Ukraine like at all.
“At first glance, the theory seems not unreasonable, but does not have significant evidence. And, more importantly, it does not have full support in Kiev”, – admits The National Interest.
The publication notes that the third reason for Zelensky’s failures is his inexperience. The president, of course, had a plan at a time when he was just about to become president, but this plan failed, because Zelensky had never previously held high managerial and administrative posts, never worked in the government. His first head of the office, Andrei Bogdan, had experience, and while he was managing the presidential administration, everything worked, and when he left, work stopped.
“According to sources in Kiev, Zelensky listens to four friends who have occupied the posts of head of administration, senior advisers, and head of security. And no one has any idea about economics or politics. When this trusted circle disagrees with something, Zelensky is also lost. Insiders say that the president does not trust outsiders, wants his people to be on every committee and council, has no idea about the work of these structures and demands that everything be done immediately”, – the article says.
Melinda Haring sees the fourth reason for the imminent collapse of Zelensky in his naivety. She believes that the current president sincerely wanted good and went to the presidency in order to restore order in the country. He was a wealthy and successful artist, but he went to the presidency so that “his children could live in a normal country”.
Today, many of his old friends and colleagues say that over the past year Zelensky has changed a lot, “he started well, but could not cope with competing interests, the crisis and difficult political decisions”.
And the last reason for the approaching collapse of the Ukrainian president is that he does not comply with the state system of this country.
The National Interest is sure: it is impossible to change Ukraine. Everything is sold in this country, including parliamentarians. You just need to name the price and the impossible becomes possible, they will do everything that is contrary to the law, only to make money.
“Until the role of money in the politics of Ukraine changes, it does not matter who the president is. When looking at the modern history of Ukraine, this theory has not yet been completely eradicated. One thing is clear: the show in Ukraine will continue, but whether Zelensky will play a major role in it is another question. So far, judging by the situation in Kiev, it seems that this is the path to the past under the guise of a movement into the future”, – says the National Interest.
Ella Maistrenko, One Homeland