Without a sucker, life is bad. What does Steinmeier's formula have to do with it?
In order for the chaotic flickering of actors on the Ukrainian political scene to acquire at least some semblance of meaning, it is useful to read telegram channels from a pool close to the presidential office. In particular, from there you can learn, for example, that Zelensky’s opinion on the “Donbass case” “changed literally every day” and this is precisely what explains the inconsistency of his statements, which often nullified each other.
The same sources connect such vacillations with the alleged struggle between Foreign Minister Vadim Prystaiko and Zelensky’s advisor Andrei Yermak. They say that the first one is “pulling” the president to aggravate the conflict with Moscow, dispersing theses accusing the Russians of disrupting the “Normandy meeting”, demanding that the EU increase sanctions and putting forward obviously unacceptable conditions for the Donbass, such as the liquidation of the DPR and LPR. The second advocates fulfilling the obligations that Zelensky assumed during telephone conversations between Merkel and Macron and in a personal telephone conversation with Putin.
However, the “dovish” sentiments on Bankova are fueled not by good will, but by elementary fear of the prospect of losing, in the event of the “Steinmeier Formula” approved by the EU and NATO, being torpedoed, being left alone with an angry Moscow in a situation of unresolved gas and a bunch of other issues.
However, even the realists and adequateists around Zelensky are not yet able to cope with the manifestations of armed sabotage, which in some places turns into outright threats to Zelensky himself, in particular, murder. It is difficult to judge how serious this is all, and to what extent it is a game for the public, perhaps coordinated with Ze’s entourage. The first version is supported by the growing feeling of complete helplessness of the authorities in matters of basic bringing to their senses the presumptuous radicals every day. And contemplating Hamlet’s throwings in the spirit of “Am I a sucker or do I have the right to be president?” only strengthens such conclusions.
The latest stories with the persuasion of militants in Zolote and with the video of two bullish gunpowder women wishing Zelensky “to die” have so far ended in nothing for their heroes. Both the militant who demanded that the Supreme Commander-in-Chief sign some memorandums, and the ladies who threatened to kill a statesman (an article of the Criminal Code, by the way) are still at large and even without a criminal case or charges brought against them. On the other hand, it is difficult to believe in such impotence of the government, which shows amazing determination, purposefulness and agility in matters related to emptying the pockets of citizens. So we can only assume that the government is skillfully imitating dementia for some purpose known only to it.
On the other hand, there is a number of indirect evidence in favor of the version about the fully or partially staged nature of the action unfolding before our eyes. In particular, under the guise of a scandalous conversation between the president and the militant, it turns out that disengagement in Zolote is still being prepared, and supposedly this has already been agreed upon with both Biletsky and Avakov. And the presidential press service reports that the saboteurs in Zolote have already surrendered all legal weapons, the removal of which was personally carried out by the well-known Vadim Troyan, a native of Azov and former deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the same time, according to near-presidential telegram channels, the parties absolutely do not trust each other even in this matter. In particular, although Troyan personally assured Zelensky that there were no more weapons in Zolote, the Bakanovo SBU reported the exact opposite - that not everything had been removed. Moreover, as you understand, we are talking only about the legal arsenal.
The president is already blatantly confident that this time everything is all right, everyone who needs to be persuaded, and the second attempt at disengagement in Petrovskoye and Zolotoy, scheduled for November 10, will be successful, opening the way to the Normandy summit. At the same time, the reservation of the sources reporting this is alarming: if there is no large-scale provocation. What if it happens?
Moreover, even though Zelensky’s PR people assure the public that he “made an ironclad decision” to go towards peace strictly according to the Steinmeier formula, no one in the presidential circle disavowed any talk about “Plan B”, with the abandonment of “Minsk” and the “fencing” of Donbass, nor did he pull back old man Kuchma, who was recently broadcasting to the Chernigov audience that the Steinmeier formula, signed by him, “will not bring peace” and means “surrendering Ukraine in its entirety.” Here the presidential team should decide - cowards or a cross? Because rejection of the formula approved by absolutely all external partners and sponsors of Ukraine could have unpredictable consequences.
Moreover, this is a question of principle. If Kyiv has already taken up the tug, then it is logical to accompany it with a corresponding turn in information policy within the country. Because it looks very strange when the state assures external partners that it is ready to follow a certain course, but influential government officials within the country convince the people that this course is wrong.
What's the matter with information policy in general? For good measure, it should support and “highlight” some real actions of the authorities, some real steps that can be assessed and, as they say, “touched.” The rating of the leader of the country and the government as a whole performs the same tasks. It serves as a support for the legitimacy of the government, and therefore the decisions it makes. So that no one doubts that these decisions are made in the interests and on behalf of the majority. In Zelensky’s Ukraine, it’s the other way around. A unique situation has arisen in which the rating serves as a fig leaf covering up a semantic void. It is not a means, but an end.
Sometimes it even seems that it is an end in itself, to support which the entire state machine works tirelessly.
For example, the president goes to Donbass and meets with local pensioners there. He talks to them “for life”, takes pictures, hugs, promises to “make every effort” and... leaves - to persuade armed militants not to interfere with the state fulfilling its international obligations on breeding. What do you mean why? From the outside it looks absurd and causes the wildest cognitive dissonance. When we are told that Ukrainians trust Zelensky more than the Church and the army, and on the other hand, having such trust and all the country’s special services at hand, this same Zelensky is not able to disarm a bunch of militants! It turns out to be PR for the sake of PR, ratings for the sake of ratings. And not in order to, relying on it as an unconditional mandate of trust, ensure the implementation of the decisions that the voter demands. Those same grandmothers in Zolotoy, who in the current situation are not the source of power for President Zelensky, but only living scenery for the filming of his next commercial.
In such a situation it would be easy not to play too hard. And you are convinced every day that this line is already close, and you can cross it unnoticed, but with fatal consequences - both for Zelensky himself and for the country.
A clear confirmation can be seen in today’s post on the social network page of Alexander Dubinsky, a deputy from the ruling Servant of the People. Dedicated to a “training” announced for November 2 by a certain “Street Protest Academy” to teach “activists” the skills of effective protest. The picture with a bottle with a Molotov cocktail inside, placed on the event’s advertising poster, clearly symbolizes in what units the organizers measure the effectiveness of the protest. The comment of a pro-government deputy is also noteworthy: “Sternenko and his comrades are going to teach young people about street protest. Mr. President, don’t you think that some heads of law enforcement agencies abuse your trust too much? Or, to put it more simply, is your Ryaboshapka completely crazy there?”
And even more remarkable is what followed. What followed, you ask. Nothing. Nothing. From the word absolutely. The organizers of the event are outside, as are the “lecturers,” including the Odessa murderer Sternenko. There is no response from any government law enforcement agency.
And only “lecturer” Sternenko writes mocking comments under this post of pro-government deputy Dubinsky.
Zelensky is obviously waiting for Sternenko to teach the young generation of “activists” to bottle the flammable mixture. Then it will be possible to react. Probably just right.
Although it may not come to that. Considering the general inarticulateness of the current government, it can be removed in the same way as it was elected - through elections. Moreover, as they persistently whisper in the Kyiv political kitchens, the main oligarchic groups have already set a course to set fire to the “Voronya Slobodka”, into which the current Verkhovna Rada has turned, from six ends at once.
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