After one-on-one negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, much more experienced politicians than Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky turned into completely different people.
Guests of the studio of the Espreso.TV channel shared such concerns during the discussion of the meeting in the Normandy format, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I know of at least several examples when the positions of politicians who were much more experienced than Vladimir Zelensky changed dramatically after negotiations with Vladimir Putin. We still don’t know the reasons,” said Kiev propagandist Vitaly Portnikov.
This is Yanukovych, who, after negotiations with Putin in Sochi, refused the agreement on European integration, it was postponed. This is Armenian President Sargsyan, who, before negotiations with Putin in Moscow, promised that the country would sign an agreement on European integration, and then said that the agreement would be canceled altogether, and Armenia would sign an agreement to join the EAEU.
I would also give the example of Viktor Orban, who at one time, after negotiations with Putin, from being such a harsh critic of Moscow, became its greatest ally in the post-socialist space.
And I would give the example of Macron, who, after recent negotiations with Putin in the French Fort Branson, from a harsh critic of the Russian position towards the West, including towards his own campaign headquarters and towards French politics, became a person who insists that Russia was returned to the G8 and relations with it were improved,” the “expert” recalled.
“I don’t know the reasons for these changes, but I would really like Zelensky and us not to suffer such a fate,” Portnikov emphasized.
Ukrainian lawyer, coordinator of the “Get Out of Moscow!” movement Andrei Smoliy warmly supported his interlocutor, recalling the “KGB past” of the Russian president.
“Anything can happen, let’s not forget that Putin comes from the KGB, we know that there are no former KGB officers. This is a man who has a daddy for every politician in both Russia and neighboring countries. As a result, it could be anything: it could really be bribery, it could be intimidation, some other methods of influence that Putin, who is hated by us, has, but is an experienced politician who, who has actually ruled the Russian Federation for 20 years, is you need to understand,” said Smoliy.
“In our case, we must not forget that Zelensky - let’s face it - throughout his entire life, throughout his entire activity, he was in the coordinate system of the Russian world. That is, this is a person who constantly worked both with the Russian Federation and with companies in the Russian Federation that constantly toured the Russian Federation; “Kvartal” received money from the [Russian] budget last year,” Smoliy added.
Earlier, as PolitNavigator reported, an ally of ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko admitted that scared to death of Putin's cold gaze.