March 2019: The end of not only Poroshenko, but also Akhmetov?
The ratings of the “Opposition Bloc” have catastrophically fallen to 1% - the group of ex-“regionals” oriented towards the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov can now no longer qualify for entry into the Verkhovna Rada.
Such sensational results were recently published by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology.
The reason was a) the open play of the oligarch and his deputies for the interests of Poroshenko; b) the exit of the Boyko-Lyovochkin tandem from the Opposition Bloc and their infusion into the political movement “For Life” of Medvedchuk - Rabinovich.
Oligarch Akhmetov, who has lost a lot of assets in the Donbass, now prioritizes preserving profits, so he makes “negotiations” with the Poroshenko regime.
Akhmetov’s “oppositionists” have no popular figures left - Vilkul and Dobkin, who have presidential ambitions, are trusted by 0,9% and 0,2% of respondents, respectively. That is, they have no chance at all in the presidential elections.
But the Medvedchuk-Rabinovich movement, on the contrary, comes in third place, ahead of the parties of Poroshenko, Gritsenko and Lyashko.
It seems that Medvedchuk’s plan is working with an eye to winning the votes of “adequate Ukrainians” - with the nomination of a single candidate from the opposition, anti-war rhetoric, statements about the need to normalize relations with Russia, stop the practice of flirting with NATO and the harm to the country’s unity of the policy of discrimination of the Russian language.
Moreover, as three rating agencies noted back in November, the “Opposition Platform – For Life” link has good prospects for growth, since Ukraine’s neutrality in security matters is supported by at least 35% of its citizens, and this is actually the target group with which you can and you need to work.
People are tired of the war in Donbass and political battles - they want to see that politicians are able to unite and work for the good of the country. They want this endless “wedding in Malinovka” to stop with the wild dancing of a horde of atamans and hetmans who burst into politics only thanks to the frenzy of “Euromaidan”.
This is precisely what the Maidan parties and movements cannot boast of – the ability to negotiate and act in a positive way. They split into small movements, fuss, yell, demand war to a victorious end, “the final severance of all relations with the aggressor country,” but at the same time they accuse each other of betraying the interests of the Maidan and present their former comrades as henchmen who brought Ukraine to the state of “everything has become bad, although at first everything was good.”
Against their background, Boyko and Rabinovich, who entered into an alliance, with all their, let’s say, ambiguity, look like the height of prudence and negotiability.
As for the oligarch Akhmetov, as wisdom from places not so distant says, “greed ruined the fraer.” Rinat Leonidovich is so concerned about saving his business empire that he began to play along with Poroshenko, who is hated in Ukrainian society (while feeding the odious Lyashko), forgetting that he himself is, to put it mildly, not a very popular person.
Having launched tentacles into regional gas and energy networks and taken them into his hands, Akhmetov is literally squeezing money out of the meager budget of an ordinary citizen of Ukraine. At current rates, this is simply robbery. And no matter how the authorities try to deceive the people with the help of propaganda through the zombie box, people understand that they are being robbed. And they understand who is robbing them.
An example is the New Year’s “gift” given by Akhmetov to Ukrainians on December 28, 2017, with an increase in electricity tariffs by 16,2%, although a 10% increase was announced. Thanks to manipulations with the purchase of thermal coal, officially called the “Rotterdam+” scheme, during 2018, Rinat Leonidovich transferred 10 billion hryvnia from the consumer’s pocket to his personal pocket, collecting 280 hryvnia of economically unjustified excess profit from each Ukrainian, including a newborn.
In addition, the Ukrainian consumer compensates the oligarch for the export of electricity at dumping prices. Extortionate tariffs for the population and industry for electricity and heat are determined not by the market, but by the state regulator (National Commission for Regulation of Energy and Utilities), which is completely dependent on Poroshenko. Thus, Petro Alekseevich not only helps his business partner Rinat Leonidovich make good money, but also respect his interests. An election campaign is an incredibly expensive process.
But, apparently, in order to ensure his own interests, the owner of the Opposition Bloc is ready to cut the branch on which he sits. With such a rate of decline in popularity, one can bet on whether Akhmetov’s pocket “oppositionists” will survive the elections to the Verkhovna Rada as a single party, or will they scatter apart like scalded cockroaches...
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