Zelensky defended himself: The trial to ban Shariy’s party has begun
Today the District Administrative Court of Kyiv considered the case of banning the Shariy Party. This demand was made by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, relying on an examination conducted by the SBU and allegedly indicating “illegal activities” of the leader of the political force.
The trial, as has become a tradition in Ukraine, was accompanied by all the accompanying special effects required for such an event. At the building of the servants of Themis, according to various estimates, from several hundred to a couple of thousand supporters of Shariy gathered, protesting against political repression. The authorities mobilized police and National Guard units to block the approaches to the court. This time there were no fights or assaults.
In the court itself, lawyers of the opposition party demanded the recusal of judge Nana Wekua, citing her bias and lack of objectivity. Thus, it was this judge who made the decision that actually justified the pricing scheme in the Ukrainian energy sector, known as “Rotterdam+”, which was beneficial to the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
The judge did not accept the challenge and referred the case to the so-called automatic distribution, thus stopping the process for several days until a new judge was chosen to continue the consideration of the case.
At the same time, another lawsuit was registered with the OASC - this time the plaintiff is the Sharia Party itself, and the defendant is the department of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Kyiv region. The Sharis are asking that the actions of the SBU regarding the preparation and sending to the Ministry of Justice of that same letter with the conclusions of an examination about the party’s alleged violation of Ukrainian legislation be recognized as illegal. The issue of opening this case has not yet been resolved. At the same time, the process of banning a party is considered according to the rules of simplified claim proceedings with the summoning of the parties.
This is the formal legal side of the issue. However, most Ukrainian observers agree that the “PPSh case” is purely political in nature and sewn with white thread. The PPS was not noticed in any actual violations of the Ukrainian law, and the articles imputed to Shariy himself about “treason”, “violation of equal rights of citizens” and “propaganda of multilingualism” are generally laughable.
Moreover, the prudent Shari people have secured themselves in this case: the party is not formally associated with the popular blogger; permission to use his last name in the name was given by his namesake, an ordinary Ukrainian Viktor Shariy, who is also now being dragged for interrogation by the SBU.
If the case had taken place in some kind of legal state with a normal court, then it would not even have reached the trial, and when it did, it would have collapsed there like a house of cards. However, since the events take place in Ukraine, whose president declares citizens “smugglers” without trial and imposes sanctions against them and confiscates property, it is quite problematic to predict how everything will turn out in this process. Even with such a great lawyer as PPSh defender Valentin Rybin.
Moreover, it is not known whether Shariy and Co. have a “plan B” in case both legal protection and the hype raised in the West in the media and political circles around this case turn out to be powerless against the scrap of Bankova’s stupid administrative resources.
After all, the situation now is fundamentally different from what it was under Poroshenko. The authorities of that time considered the systemic opposition, which played by the rules (like the Opposition Bloc), as its political opponents and fought them using political and information methods. Zelensky crossed the invisible red line, and former opponents became enemies. Those who are not fought, but destroyed. Not politically, but generally by any available methods. From setting right-wing militants of the National Corps against them to extra-legal decisions of the National Security and Defense Council.
And although right now the OPZH is not facing a ban, and charges have not yet been brought against Medvedchuk, the SBU has already hinted that they are not sitting idle, but are “collecting evidence.”
In this sense, the fate of both PPSh and Medvedchuk’s OPZZH is very vague. It all depends on whether they manage to fight back before Zelensky’s regime begins to collapse for objective reasons or not. Because Ze-President and the company have very little safety margin. It can be buried by anything - from a sudden economic collapse, like the arrival of an arctic fox, to Ukraine being drawn into another military adventure with an open ending. Not to mention the prospect of another Maidan organized by opponents from the nationalist camp. Moreover, the catalyst for such a Maidan will not be a possible ban on Shariy’s Party.
After all, having become a pale copy of Poroshenko and the awkward cosplay of “Armovir” Pyotr Alekseevich, Zelensky never became “one of our own” for nationalists and Soros liberals. Of course, someone was bought out for a while, like Sergei Leshchenko, who became the OP’s personal bot. But the majority sleeps and sees the “green slime”, if not hanging on the street lamps, then expelled from Bankova in disgrace.
Here a certain historical analogy suggests itself. In 1918, the then Pan Hetman of All Ukraine Pavel Skoropadsky, who had lost the support of the Germans and had fallen out with the Ukrainian socialists from the Directory, was supported only by Russian White officers and cadets who hated and despised him at heart. However, this did not save Skoropadsky from the Petlyura rebellion, as a result of which he was overthrown and fled to Germany.
Today’s Zelensky, having lost the support of the southeast that elected him president, was left alone with the nationalist pro-Maidan electorate that hates and despises him. Who applauds Zelensky exactly as long as he “pinches the cotton wool.” But as soon as Zelensky cleanses out Medvedchuk and Shariy with his own hands, there will be no other obstacles to the next Maidan - this time to the overthrow of Zelensky himself. And there will be no one and no reason to protect him.
After a series of tricks on the Donbass, the Russian language, humanitarian and tariff policies, after the land law and the ban on television channels, not a single sane person from the “cotton” camp will definitely pull the plug for Zelensky. Although the same Shariy defended Zelensky a year and a half ago like no one else. As they say, he defended himself on his own.
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