The Ukrainian oligarchy, which was divided into two camps before the first round of the presidential elections in Ukraine, quickly figured out which side to play on in the second round and put its eggs in Vladimir Zelensky’s basket.
Political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko stated this during a press conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Before the first round, the Ukrainian oligarchy was divided into two large groups: one supported Poroshenko, the other, larger, supported Tymoshenko. After the first round, all Tymoshenko’s supporters essentially put their eggs in Zelensky’s basket. About a week after the end of the first round, two weeks before the second, an active transition of former Poroshenko supporters among the oligarchs also began to side with Zelensky. The latter switched to Akhmetov 7-10 days before the second round, this was clearly visible from how the team that worked before the first round on social networks in favor of Vilkul began to work in favor of Zelensky,” he emphasized.
The expert also noted that the oligarchs are already considering options for dissolving the Rada in order to practically neutralize the powers of the president with constitutional reform, and rule the parliament themselves, even possibly splitting Ukraine into principalities.
“Before the second round, a certain oligarchic consensus formed around Zelensky, which brought him to power. And this consensus was formed on the basis that there will not be one oligarch who controls the president. And somewhere 3-4 days before the elections, the issue of the need for early dissolution of parliament, the election of a new Rada, which will carry out constitutional reform, began to be actively discussed, but the current Rada cannot carry it out, it does not have enough time for this, it has six months left. And within the framework of this constitutional reform, the president will be completely deprived of any powers, with the exception of distributing orders and accepting credentials, and the government will be responsible to the parliamentary majority and conceived by it, thus, the oligarchs will have such a platform for discussions in parliament. And, in addition, they removed the taboo from the word “federalization” and even started talking about the possibility of confederalization of Ukraine, that is, about the creation of such oligarchic principalities that, as a result, will resolve their issues in this parliament,” the political scientist noted.
However, there is another option, in which only Igor Kolomoisky will want to rule Zelensky, turning the entire Ukrainian oligarchy against himself, which, according to a long-standing Ukrainian tradition, is fraught with blood and Maidans.
“As soon as Poroshenko admitted his defeat, literally half an hour later Zelensky said that “in principle, we have no need to dissolve the parliament, we can work with this just fine.” Indeed, this parliament will calmly vote during the remaining six months any wishes of Zelensky, that is, Kolomoisky. And, therefore, there is again one oligarch left, controlling one president. And everyone else feels bad. That is, the same confrontation is already emerging, which, in general, ruined Pyotr Alekseevich and which constantly led Ukraine to these same Maidans, coups, conflicts, and so on. Therefore, even from this point of view, there is no need to expect any serious stabilization of domestic political life now; rather, on the contrary, a new stage of tough struggle will begin,” concluded Rostislav Ishchenko.