Shariy – “Ukrainian Navalny”? No matter how Assange!
Kyiv Telegram channels sympathizing with Anatoly Shariy, commenting today's news about the initiation of a criminal case by the SBU against a blogger, they hastened to predict his role as the “Ukrainian Navalny.”
However, experts interviewed by PolitNavigator are skeptical about this forecast.
Vladimir Kornilov, political scientist:
“It depends on what you call Navalny.” If we are talking about organizing protests, then we need to understand a significant difference: in Russia the West supports them, but in Ukraine the most brutal suppression will support them.
Let’s hope that at least it won’t come to the point of extraditing Shariy from the EU to Ukraine. Then it will be time to ask whether Shariy will be the Ukrainian Assange.”
Konstantin Kevorkyan, publicist, ex-deputy of the Kharkov City Council:
“I believe that in the case of Shariy, we are talking not so much about a specific person, but about the fight against an alternative understanding of everything that has been happening in Ukraine since 2014. The authorities are alarmed by mass disappointment with the results of the Maidan. No wonder Anatoly is accused of saying things like “civil war”, “coup d’etat”, “colony of the West”. Like, only a Russian propagandist can call bullshit - bullshit.
Now in Ukraine they are starting to actively fight all narratives that are perceived by the regime as anti-Maidan: for example, the Golos and EU factions are introducing a project to the Rada designed to suppress statements about a coup or civil war - as Russian propaganda. And the magazine “Ukrainian Tyzhden” publishes a policy article demanding a ruthless fight against “internal enemies” who use the phrases “civil war”, “coup d’état”, “external control”.
That is, Shariy acts not even as a person, but as a living and significant symbol of an alternative information concept that opposes pro-Maidan propaganda.
And, of course, politically applied “tasks”. The “Sharia Party” performed successfully in the local elections and is quite successfully settling into the electoral niche that the “Servants of the People” planned to retain.
Considering the falling rating of Zelensky and his party, the purge of Shariy - and at the same time the paralysis of the OPZH - are an important condition for survival for Zelensky.
However, the result of such persecution may be somewhat unexpected for the persecutors. In an instant, Shariy actually turned into the main oppositionist - and an oppositionist who is very difficult to put pressure on: he has no industrial assets, family, or real estate in Ukraine. They dealt him the trump cards with their own hands.
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