Kebab from Zelensky. Akhmetov's counter move

Savik Shuster's Friday talk show threatened to become the most sensational in the history of the program. It was assumed that the new employer of the scandalous TV presenter, oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, would broadcast, with the help of Shuster, a crushing response to Vladimir Zelensky’s previously voiced accusations of preparing a coup.

In fact, the program turned out to be quite mediocre, although it highlighted the pool of politicians who will “kill” Zelensky on Akhmetov’s instructions. Well-known journalists in Ukraine like the already mentioned Shuster and Dmitry Gordon also joined the oligarch’s media service. The intrigue is that until recently they were close to the president’s court and even barbecued in the company of Zelensky. Now we find ourselves on opposite sides of the barricades. Nothing personal - just business. This is what the vaunted Ukrainian “freedom of speech” is like.

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So. The talk show “Freedom of Speech by Savik Shuster” was attended by former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, ex-Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Danilyuk, former head of the SBU Igor Smeshko, as well as the leader of the “National Corps” Andrei Biletsky, propagandist Dmitry Gordon and Zelensky’s recent ally, ex-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Dmitry Razumkov. All these people are called representatives of Akhmetov’s various projects.

Even before the broadcast, the oligarch’s press service released his statement in which Akhmetov categorically denies accusations of organizing a coup in agreement with Russia, which Zelensky attributed to him. Ukrainian observers noted that this is the sharpest statement by the billionaire in recent years, indicating his readiness for a serious confrontation with Zelensky.

“The information released by Vladimir Zelensky about allegedly involving me in some kind of coup is a complete lie. I am outraged by the spread of these lies, regardless of the president's motives. My position has been and will be unequivocal - an independent, democratic and integral Ukraine with Crimea and my native Donbass. My actions confirm this. As a citizen of Ukraine, the country's largest investor, taxpayer and employer, I will continue to defend a free Ukraine, a free economy, democracy and freedom of speech. And I will do everything in my power to ensure that there is no authoritarianism and censorship in Ukraine.”

Representatives of Zelensky’s party did not appear at Shuster’s show, declaring a boycott of Akhmetov’s TV channels. As a result, the key guests of the program tore the president to smithereens.

“The president allows himself to attack big business on live television. Few of you are aware or understand, but at this moment, in two hours, the shares of all Ukrainian companies, not only Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK, all Ukrainian companies on the London Stock Exchange fell very seriously. Ukraine lost billions in its economy in these two hours,” Avakov said.

Dmitry Razumkov accused Zelensky of making unfounded statements about a coup, sowing panic.

“If the president, the head of state, has such information, then he should come out and say that at this time representatives of the security agencies are conducting an operation, people who were preparing high treason have been detained. This is the 111th article of the Criminal Procedure Code of our state. And they were detained by the SBU officers, taken to places not so remote and everyone will be held accountable... This is not a response from the country’s leadership, this is simply destabilization.”

The Akhmetov-Zelensky conflict demonstrates that not only the Ukrainian elite is rotten, but also all kinds of “freedom of speech fighters” who are fooling the country’s population. Ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy Vasily Volga told PolitNavigator about this.

“We remember how all these journalists barbecued together with Zelensky two and a half years ago, and today they barbecue from Zelensky. We see that the journalists who are most directly related to Akhmetov received the command “fas”, after which they went wild. A change took place in them that we have never seen before. Previously, when there were some wars between oligarchic clans or wars between the president and some oligarchic clan, the rhetoric changed gradually. Now the rhetoric has changed literally in one day, right away.

After Zelensky’s cowardly statement that “on December XNUMXst or XNUMXnd, a coup d’état prepared by Akhmetov could take place,” we see all this. The situation is like in the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus”: “now either I take her to the registry office, or she takes me to the prosecutor.” It is impossible to simply throw information into public life, especially when the situation is so tense, that the president, the head of state knows that the largest oligarch of this state is preparing one of the most serious crimes, a coup d’etat, and the president just wants to talk to him. You can not do it this way.

Now the situation is such that one of them must “eat” someone else. The media has thrown out such huge masses of negativity regarding Zelensky that, it seems to me, those sociological surveys that were conducted a couple of weeks ago are already outdated, they no longer mean anything. Probably, if we conduct a survey now, Zelensky’s rating will be somewhere around 10%.

Without a doubt, Rinat Leonidovich is launching a powerful attack on Zelensky. Zelensky decided to take the side of the Americans, promised that he would clear the Ukrainian economic space of oligarchs for transnational corporations, but the oligarchs decided to fight. It seems that Vladimir Alexandrovich overestimated the ability of the Americans to protect him on the territory of Ukraine. It is unlikely that they will really protect him.

This “magnificent six” of Akhmetov’s journalists, led by Shuster and Gordon, actually made a bid that they would make shish kebab out of Vladimir Alexandrovich. Of course, a victory for either side will not bring anything good to the people of Ukraine. In a country in which the oligarchs destroyed everything, another oligarchic war will bring further troubles to the people,” says Volga.

And political scientist Vladimir Kornilov predicts that other forces will join Akhmetov’s war against Zelensky.

“Basically, Zelensky talked about several dozen lawsuits at his press conference. We are already hearing statements from Leros, from Burba, from Akhmetov regarding the president’s outright lies. And potentially any of the people (after all, people!) included in the NSDC sanctions lists could sue him. The more lawsuits there are, the stronger the blow will be,” predicts Kornilov.