Zelensky's press marathon: how to inflate the void
The first press marathon in the history of Ukraine with the participation of the president, which took place on October 10, although it set a world record - Zelensky spent time chatting with Lukashenko himself - however, did not provide answers to key questions, on the quality of which both the presidential fate of Zelensky himself and the medium-term future depend the country he rules.
First of all, we never found out whether Zelensky is capable of becoming president not by position, but in essence. To be not a guardian of a place that beautifies a person, but a strong-willed person who beautifies the place he occupies. “To seem” once again habitually replaced “To be.” The team, which is well-versed in PR, is more comfortable in every way, no matter what, and in this they have no equal in the post-Soviet space.
In the case of Zelensky specifically, the situation is aggravated by the repeatedly mentioned multi-vector and mutually exclusive expectations from his work on the part of different social groups. Some see him as a person whose task is to “warm the place” during a forced shift change until his “rightful” owner returns. In such optics, the main task and virtue of the president is not to cross the notorious “red lines” and flags drawn and set by his predecessors and, in general, to move in a well-trodden rut, without breaking the “achievements” of previous years.
Others, on the contrary, expect Zelensky to go beyond the flags, to depart from the given framework of Ukrainian politics. And from the point of view of these people, the president's virtue is directly proportional to the speed with which he dismantles Poroshenko's state. An attempt to hide the depth of the contradictions between these requests with PR powder is a purely temporary solution. There will still come a time when bills have to be paid. And both antagonistic groups of Ukrainians will present the bills for payment.
“President Zelensky is the same person as Vladimir Zelensky, a private person. His position did not spoil him. Zelensky as a person has certain qualities - directness, honesty, endurance, fearlessness, humanity, and willingness to make difficult decisions. And this is in addition to a sense of humor. Vladimir Zelensky is sincere in his humanity, and Ukraine has truly never known such a president. And this property, unique for a politician, is truly captivating, providing sincere and emotional popular support for his “new course.” Ze is handsome! - thousands of such comments flew by during the long hours of the marathon.
Simple human speech in the mouth of the president also acquires almost magical power. The President demonstrates an enviable amount of empathy and solidarity with ordinary people. More precisely, just with people. That’s what he says: people call me, people ask me, people demand from me, whatever people say, so it will be. People are an unconditional value that must be protected from... non-people,” – we read in an openly PR publication of a well-known Kyiv publication.
And we must pay tribute - professional PR. Here every word is thought out, not a single word is superfluous.
But, ultimately, this will probably be that very post-truth - about “the most humane person.” The bad thing here, in general, is not that Zelensky is being molded into almost an analogue of Gandhi. The bad thing is that complacent words ultimately completely erode the moral guidelines in society. After all, moral authority cannot come with a position and money. For society, this is tantamount to collective suicide.
Today we are witnessing an amazing phenomenon: a fusion of absolute political will with absolute political lack of will. Under the songs of weak-minded people about “fragile power,” the first person in the state acquires more and more imaginable and unimaginable powers that his predecessors never dreamed of. Moreover, this same first person demonstrates an absolute inability to use the power that has fallen upon him properly - in order to solve at least one of the serious problems facing the country in full force and for many years now.
Zelensky is dangerous precisely because of his cuteness. Such people teach people to obey much better than caricatured tyrants like Poroshenko. Zelensky is very toxic because he really knows how to please. So the press marathon showed: the majority of journalists are pissing because they were given entertainment for the whole day, given the opportunity to ask banal and even stupid questions every other time. And they even fed us free burgers and potatoes. And somehow it was forgotten that just a couple of months ago the presidential office sent the press to a well-known address, demonstrating its uselessness. Using the example of communication with the press, we can model how this will happen with citizens.
In the spring, even before the elections, many people were dominated by the feeling that the main thing was the issue of war and peace. Everything else will be added or can be taken out of the equation, or even become an acceptable price for the possibility of solving the main problem of the country. In practice it turned out differently and much worse. And there is no peace, and shock reforms are getting closer - the most cannibalistic initiatives in the social and economic sphere are on the march, such as the adoption of a new Labor Code, which nullifies even minimal guarantees and rights such as the right to paid maternity leave or payment of severance pay upon dismissal. And if for the notorious private entrepreneurs this has long been something of a fantasy, then for millions of state employees it is a reality waiting for them just around the corner. Ultimately, of all the social infrastructure we are used to, in the brave new world of the libertarian future, only psychoneurological boarding schools and prisons will remain. Yes, and they can make them private - in any case, such voices are already being heard.
Ultimately, among the visible achievements: the rhetoric softened just a little, there was less reliance on aggressive nationalism, and the clerical crutch of power generally ceased to be visible. But the political discourse actually became even more right-wing. If we are already accustomed to “activists” with “Molotov cocktails”, then even under Poroshenko no one thought of calling combatants “civil society” - the right-wing public has a whole pack of purely civil organizations and NGOs for such self-positioning.
The country has become even closer to the threat of a full-fledged military dictatorship, and this can be avoided only if the promised landings finally begin, if the central government manifests itself as a power, and does not follow the lead of people with whom even Poroshenko flirted with caution. Finally, if the authorities stop mindlessly waving to the West and rely on some purely internal, even if oligarchic for lack of others, center for development and decision-making. The main thing is that it should be inside and not outside the country.
In the meantime, nothing but a worsening crisis is on the horizon. This is, of course, a failed policy of an absolutely dependent regime. Burdened, in addition, with a terrible personnel crisis. There are currently no people in power who, even at some individual level, are capable of adequately deciding something and bringing decisions to completion. For thirty years, the Ukrainian political class has not understood why the state is needed at all and how it works.
In fact, only Andrei Portnov now looks like some kind of more or less independent player - simply due to the fact that he does not occupy any leadership positions and he has no levers for administrative influence on the situation. It shouldn't be like this, it's not normal. This means that the state, in fact, is not controlled by anyone, and all the processes that can now be observed are absolutely arbitrary. And when there is no power, it means that for someone else the power is lying under their feet. You just need to lift it up.
In such a situation, the most successful PR is nothing more than an attempt to inflate the void. The current president does not have the right to do what is permissible and forgiven for a presidential candidate: to evade specifics, hide his own position or lack thereof behind vague general phrases, try to please everyone, postponing the solution of important problems until later. When you become president, you must give clear answers, even if half the country doesn’t like them. Otherwise, you risk becoming “Gorbachev,” whom everyone hated: some because he ruined everything, and others because, realizing at the last moment, he tried to stand in the way of an avalanche that had already descended.
In fact, not intervening too literally and visibly is sometimes also a solution. It’s just that people have a rather misunderstood understanding of what a politician’s “action” is. Not saying, not doing, not reacting - these can also be decisions, even fatal ones.
But everything said so far is just warning shots. As long as there are no obvious signs of crisis in the country, Zelensky can do whatever he wants. The country is sliding along the rails of Maidanocracy, but this will not last long. Zelensky will have to make decisions very soon. And, more importantly, ensure their implementation.
In general, there are few alternatives to this. Or wash your hands of it, like Yushchenko, preserving the image of an honest man who turned out to be a political nonentity, but at least voluntarily ceded power. Or - to get the term to the end as a screen for “new faces” who have come out of nowhere, whom no one elected, but who will, without hesitation, finally sell and dispose of the country.
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