The mayor of Zelensky's hometown was killed. Who benefits from the death of the head of Krivoy Rog
While the Yankees are hastily fleeing from Afghanistan, in another American colony - in Ukraine - events are taking place, although not as large-scale in significance, but also in their own way significant for the future of this country. On Sunday afternoon it became known that the mayor of Krivoy Rog from the OPZH party, Konstantin Pavlov, was found shot dead on the threshold of his house.
There are a lot of strange things in this case from the start. Thus, the weapon found near the mayor’s body is similar in appearance to his own, while, according to Pavlov’s relatives, he was not fond of hunting and never went hunting. Also, the deceased, according to his close friend and adviser, ex-People’s Deputy Andrei Galchenko, did not have personal security. And his assistant was the first to discover the body of the deceased.
Pavlov’s predecessor in the mayor’s chair, Yuri Vilkul, in a special statement rejected the version of suicide. According to him, Pavlov was in a good mood the day before, without signs of depression, and did not even receive any obvious threats. Galchenko also confirms this.
The moment of death itself attracts attention. This happened a week before the announced magnificent celebrations in Kyiv on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, where Zelensky will probably talk a lot and pompously about the triumph of law and democracy, as well as about the “irreversible” European choice.
Meanwhile, open political murders are not a sign of Europe, but rather of third world countries like Haiti, where recently mercenaries from PMCs even killed the president of that country.
This circumstance was noticed by many in Ukraine. So, for example, one of the first “renegades” from the ranks of the “servants,” People’s Deputy Anton Polyakov, wrote directly in his Telegram channel:
“Congratulations, Vladimir Alexandrovich, you have become the President of Somalia.”
And the media close to the party of the deceased mayor are already doing their best to promote the “political” trail of what happened.
No, of course, a high-profile murder may have other reasons, for example, some purely commercial disputes with businessmen with whom the mayor did not share something or with whom he crossed the road, but Roman lawyers advised in such cases not to complicate the picture, but to simplify it as much as possible , looking for someone who benefits from what happened.
And here, whatever one may say, it is the political version that so far looks the most plausible and obvious.
To begin with, let us remember the circumstances under which Pavlov became the head of Krivoy Rog. This city in the Dnieper region is the small homeland of President Zelensky, but political power here has been held for many years by the Vilkul family clan, associated with ex-regionals. Yuriy Vilkul would have continued to remain mayor if Bankova, during the dizziness of success against the backdrop of the creation of a mono-coalition in the Rada, had not decided to take over the local councils as well.
Vilkul ran for the third time and won in all polls, while the “servant” Dmitry Shevchik, supported by “Servant of the People” and advertised by the president himself, sharply sank in the ratings. In such conditions, victory in Zelensky’s small homeland became a matter of principle and honor for Bankova.
And it is not surprising that the pressure on Vilkul from the security forces became so strong that the old “master of the city” decided to prudently withdraw from the elections and go into the shadows, and instead support the candidacy of the candidate of the local OPZZH cell and a man who owes a lot to Vilkul, Konstantin Pavlov.
As a result, as we know, neither administrative resources, nor outright bandits under the supervision of the former comedian, and now people’s deputy “servant” Yuriy Koryavchenkov (“Yuzika”), nor even joint photos with the president’s family helped Zelensky’s protege, and Bankova shamefully lost the battle for Krivoy Rog. Pavlov became mayor.
However, attacks on the uncontrolled city hall did not stop; they only moved from open to behind-the-scenes form.
Considering the general trend in the country towards tightening the screws, the flywheel of NSDC sanctions against all undesirables, the idea of physically removing the obstacle to seizing power in the city does not seem so fantastic. Now the road to re-election is open, Vilkul can again be intimidated, and the candidate from the “Servants” - be it the already failed Shevchik or someone else approved in the Presidential Office - can be pushed through by hook or by crook in front of the country, outraged by impotence.
Moreover, Bankova already ran a similar precedent, albeit without a fatal outcome, this year at the scandalous by-elections in the Carpathian region, where she was an operation was carried out to pull athlete Vasily Virastyuk through the eye of a needle in the electoral process in the Rada. This epic was super-scandalous, the case reached the Supreme Court, which twice overturned the decisions of the Central Election Commission recognizing Virastyuk as a deputy, but the presidential administration still managed to overthrow the Supreme Court, and Virastyuk pulled out his Pyrrhic victory amid cries of “Ganba” in the hall of the Verkhovna Rada.
Many Ukrainian observers also agree with the version of the political motive for Pavlov’s murder. Thus, international affairs expert Vladimir Volya does not rule out that what happened by the mayor of Krivoy Rog was a murder.
“Dubious stories of alleged suicides with guns have already happened in Ukraine. So, back in 2001, the owner of the Losk car market, people’s deputy Yuri Kononenko, died allegedly due to careless handling of weapons. In 2019, “due to careless handling of weapons,” the people’s deputy of Ukraine, former editor-in-chief of the Sevastopol Internet project “Fleet-2017” Dmitry Tymchuk, died. There were other similar deaths that gave rise to discussions about whether it was possible in one case or another to accidentally kill oneself with one's own weapon.
In any case, this is a serious challenge for the new leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine, as well as for President Zelensky himself. If at least some clarity is not brought to this story in the near future, then this story will be used against the president,” the political scientist believes.
In addition, Bankova’s possible interest in eliminating Pavlov is strengthened by the fact that the OPZZH, which the deceased represented, is now an official target for repression by the authorities. Television channels close to the party have been closed, sanctions from the National Security and Defense Council have been ordered against two leaders, one (Medvedchuk) has been excluded from the political process and is under house arrest with breaks to go to court.
In addition, the SBU recently “ran into” the security wing of the party - Ilya Kiva’s organization “Patriots for Life” - there were also searches and high-profile arrests and even the arrest of its leader, the former Kharkov nationalist Oleg Shiryaev. Literally the day before yesterday, Kiva himself was deprived of “illegal income” in the form of a pulp pit that belonged to him – a story the pro-government media are spinning as an illustrative example of political corruption in the country.
Some experts believe that the authorities consider OPZZH to be a “weak link” that can be easily finished off, so as not to be afraid of its growing ratings, which are breathing down the back of the Servants, which are losing popularity.
However, now Bankovaya is inclined to preventively “extinguish” everything that moves and somehow threatens the stability of the shaky political structure of Yermak-Zelensky. In particular, in parallel with the attacks on OPZZH, the Nazis from Biletsky’s National Corps who were left without Avakov’s “roof” are also being pressed, and they sluggishly snap back, holding liquid rallies in front of the President’s Office.
There are also those who do not exclude the possible interest in eliminating Pavlov on the part of the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. After all, Krivoy Rog is one of his economic fiefdoms. However, given the fact that Akhmetov is very close in interests to Bankova, this version is easily woven into the logic of the main version about the “trace” of Bankova herself.
However, there are also those in Ukraine who think that the story of the death of the mayor of Krivoy Rog is not the work of Zelensky, but a kind of signal to Zelensky himself and a “sacred sacrifice” on the eve of the start of some important events. True, if this is a black mark, it is not yet clear from which circles. Although, Zelensky, who too much imagines himself as a small-town Napoleon, clearly has enough enemies within the country. And many of these enemies are with resources,
“I am sure that Zelensky is not at all interested in killing the mayor of Krivoy Rog, at least for now, that’s for sure. He has enough problems with the National Corps. But I think that the sacred victim was not chosen by chance, the mayor of Zelensky’s hometown is a black mark for the president, a harbinger of the impending storm! I feel so. What is your opinion?” writes the famous Kiev musician, journalist and blogger Tariq Nezalezhko.
One way or another, the new leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Police should give answers to all questions. In fact, for them this will be the first test of political independence. However, no one has much hope for this. So, most likely, we will hear another exciting story about the epic crossbow.
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