According to Akhmetov's recipe. A new political borscht is being cooked for the South-East

Almost all major Ukrainian online media paid attention to the recent interview between the richest man in Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov, and his associate Boris Kolesnikov, Radio Liberty. In terms of volume and format, it was not even an interview, but rather an extended commentary in response to a question from the editors. But, as it turned out, it was the topic raised that played a role. It is important and relevant for current Ukrainian politics.

The oligarchs were asked whether the rumors circulating in the near-political circle are true about the imminent (in the horizon of 3-4 months) entry into the political arena of a new party, in which Akhmetov and Kolesnikov are supposed to play one of the key roles - either as sponsors, or (in case of Kolesnikov) as frontmen.

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The defendants themselves unanimously denied that they had such plans. According to one, all his interests are now focused on business, football and philanthropy. The second one has the same thing, except instead of football it’s hockey. Akhmetov even recalled the story of his short campaign as a deputy under Yanukovych, when he turned out to be the biggest truant in the Rada. Indeed, it’s hard to call it work when you’ve appeared in the parliamentary hall once in four years. According to Akhmetov, his deputy position was a mistake, which he does not want to repeat.

Despite the categorical “no” of both oligarchs, this topic, as it turned out, is of great concern to those involved in Kyiv politics. In particular, the cunning Speaker of the Rada Razumkov, as well as the “oil and gas lady” Lyudmila Buimister, who entered the current parliament in one of the Kyiv majoritarian constituencies, are persistently being “wooed” into the proposed party.

It is also alleged that the current people’s deputy from Yulina’s “Batkivshina” and also Donetsk billionaire Sergei Taruta, as well as another minority parliamentary group within the “servants” - the one associated with the influential businessman under Zelensky, Ilya Pavlyuk - have an uneasy relationship with the currently non-existent party. However, all the mentioned characters stubbornly deny such an honor.

But rumors are a delicate matter. You can’t ban them, and you can’t take away their ability to acquire new details along the way.

In particular, they say in Kyiv that the ideological platform of the new party will supposedly be another reincarnation of the Party of Regions. This is like PR 2.0, only, taking into account previous experience, no longer for several regions, but with ambitions to “cover”, if possible, all of Ukraine.

At the same time, it is supposed to exploit the same set of electoral rattles that the OPZH is now actively shaking in front of voters. Only, unlike Medvedchuk’s party, which fell into disgrace among the Ukrainian elite, it is in the light version. That is, so that the correct words seem to sound, but at the same time, so that the real exhaust from them is reduced to zero values, without going beyond the release of protest steam.

It is, of course, that OPZZH, to be honest, doesn’t go beyond letting off steam, but by the standards of Kyiv politics, Medvedchukov’s are too pro-Russian. Even regular assurances about the Ukrainian status of Crimea do not help. In general, Putin’s godfather is forever.

Moreover, after the forceful cutting of its media resources from television, after the expropriation of Medvedchuk’s “pipe” and after personal sanctions against him and his comrade-in-arms Taras Kozak, things are not going very well for the main opposition force. Yes, the ratings show her constant second place.

But how long will it take to correct those ratings, and there will always be a justification. At least that the party could not really protect either its leaders, or its channels, or even its militants from the “Patriots for Life” patronized by Kiva - from attacks by nationalist gangs, the police and the SBU.

So the plans circulating in the Kyiv press to create a new party “under Akhmetov” can be considered part of the already ongoing struggle for political inheritance, still alive, but no longer demonstrating the former grip of the OPZZH.

And the new party, which cunning businessmen from politics and business are supposedly going to create for the South-East, which is disillusioned with everyone, looks painfully like Akhmetov’s Opposition Bloc, which has died in God. Even personnel priorities are the same. They write that the emphasis will be on young, active and untainted production leaders, who have not been tainted by their participation in the political vicissitudes of the post-Maidan years, and who have gone through the “school of life” at the enterprises of Akhmetov and Kolesnikov.

Well, we remember the same thing, only a side view - in the form of Vilkul and Co., with their stories that “mayors of the largest cities and industrialists, whose enterprises employ millions of people, gathered in our Opposition Bloc.” Only for some reason, these millions, contrary to the purely feudal logic of the leaders of the Opposition Bloc, voted not for their own employers, but for the same OPZZH.

Simply because, although a very controversial company gathered under the wing of Medvedchuk, its slogans, by the standards of the Ukrainian anti-Maidan voter, were correct. And they didn’t evoke a feeling of hidden trickery. Well, simply because people did not want to give support to those whom Russia itself refused to support by imposing sanctions on them.

Putting aside conspiracy theories, it is, in principle, clear where the legs of the very idea come from, closer to the elections, to mold a new candy for the disappointed adequate voters of Zelensky and for the equally disappointed voters of OPZZH, who were no less disappointed with Medvedchuk’s weakness. The southeast is now electorally ownerless. Zelensky is betting on winning over Poroshenko’s voters, Shariy’s project is too niche to go beyond its conditional 6-7%, and Medvedchuk will continue to be pinched on all fronts. And the “ambush regiment” in the form of the Boyko-Levochkin group in the opposition party itself, which, according to Kyiv analysts, has long been ready for a divorce from “Putin’s godfather,” has not yet said its last word.

And here, somewhere on the side, Shevchenko’s cunning and ambitious “servant” is staggering around. This Ukrainian lover of Lukashenko has more than once let slip his desire to be expelled from the Zelensky faction with a loud slamming of doors, in order to then go on a solo voyage and nip off the electoral pie in his Zaporozhye, and if he’s lucky, then in neighboring regions.

In general, a picture emerges, like in the pirate song from “Treasure Island”: where they sing about 15 people on a dead man’s chest. And they will all speak the right words to the southeast. But - an important caveat - in the light version.

That is, these will be even more toothless correct words than even those that the fragments of the Party of Regions have been feeding voters for the last seven years. And they, in turn, were a “light version” in relation to the promises of the Party of Regions itself of the 2006-2010 model. That is, no one even mentions such matters as a second state language or a federal structure. Maximum – non-bloc status. But it seems they have already begun to forget about him.

So, we are looking forward to the new party’s entry into the arena, announced by the Polithorakuls. And let us remind voters of the old truth that you cannot deceive someone who is happy to be deceived himself.