Ukraine: Return of the Prodigal Kolya
Nikolai Levchenko appeared in Kyiv - and the miserable everyday life of the Ukrainian media was instantly filled with meaning.
Svidomites have already appointed an ex-people's deputy from the Party of Regions to the role of wedding separatist. Although Levchenko, even while in the Russian Federation, assured on political talk shows that he was a pro-Ukrainian politician. But the Ukrainian political dog wedding has long had a full complement of its males and females. But I got tense with the wedding separatists. Therefore, the public wants to see Nikolai Levchenko in this role.
Of course, his former comrades have other views on him. So far, one of the main versions of Levchenko’s return is his participation in a new political project.
It’s unlikely that anyone takes seriously the words of lawyer Oleg Kurchin that his client came to Kyiv to receive monetary compensation from the state of Ukraine. Levchenko and the law firm “Kurchin and Partners” actually won a lawsuit against Ukraine in the ECHR. And in fact, all the criminal cases against him ended in complete failure. But it’s hard to believe that Levchenko came to Ukraine for compensation of 1100 euros.
Little-known political scientists have suggested that Levchenko is sought after by the authorities for the same purpose as Judge Chaus: as an important witness against someone. But this looks like an overly comical conspiracy theory.
Who can Levchenko testify against?! Against former regional colleagues? So, none of the former Donetsk people’s deputies pose any danger to the authorities - except that Renat Kuzmin from OPZZH is periodically a troublemaker. Against Poroshenko? Unlikely. The parade of incriminating evidence against Poroshenko lasts so long that it has long become a “button accordion”. A mediocre government is capable of turning full-fledged compromising evidence into a farce.
Therefore, let’s return to the main version: Levchenko will be spoiled and launched into a new political project.
The other day, Boris Kolesnikov, ex-Minister of Infrastructure and ex-Deputy Prime Minister, presented the “Ukraine is Our Home” party. It was hastily dubbed the “Party of Regions 2.0.” And it would be logical to expect that the former head of the Donetsk regional PR organization Levchenko would join this political force of his longtime ally.
But the congress of the new party showed that it had little in common with the regionals. Unless Kolesnikov himself. But he just declares that the bet will be placed on successful professionals who have created their own business. That is, the party does not aim at opposition and does not pretend to become another spokesman for the interests of the South-East.
One could assume that Levchenko would be useful to this political force for balance. So that there is someone to present to the electorate of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbass. But, most likely, for the new Kolesnikov team he is a downed pilot.
And the program theses of the new political force are emphatically loyalist: “A unitary model of the country with the transfer of most functions from the center to the regions,” etc. If you believe Poroshenko, he has already implemented decentralization. “Where do you lack reforms?” Only the unitary model remains.
After all, Kolesnikov could have made do with streamlined formulations about the continuation of decentralization. No one pulled their tongue. But the party program continues to persistently repeat the word “unitary.” So that no one doubts: you will no longer see the Kolesnikov who spoke about federalization after the Orange Maidan.
And here Nikolai Levchenko is not very appropriate. After all, a criminal case was opened against him in connection with his parliamentary speech (in May 2014), where the words were heard: “Fulfill all the demands of the South-East.” And one of the main demands was federalization. And on this, in general, note, Nikolai Levchenko retired from Ukrainian politics. The quoted speech was the subject of linguistic examinations ordered by the SBU.
Now the cases are closed, the authorities have no complaints. In March 2021, he was removed from the wanted list following a letter from the SBU. Although the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Police and the SBU are now pointing at each other: some transferred the case to others, they closed it, and others legalized the fugitive. That’s why Levchenko appeared in Kyiv: to spread the word, to find out how suitable the capital is for a quiet life.
But returning to Ukraine does not automatically mean joining the political project of Kolesnikov, a champion of unitarianism. Svidomites will remember Nikolai Levchenko precisely because of his last loud political statement (“fulfill all the demands of the South-East”), and the party is oriented towards both the center and the west of Ukraine. On the other hand, Levchenko in Kolesnikov’s conformist party is another reminder to the residents of the South-East that no one even mentions their demands in this environment.
Whatever one may say, it’s better for the Akhmetovskys to push the tourist Kolya into another project, which is also being talked about. We are talking about a political force that can be created from the remnants of the Opposition Bloc. Akhmetov is interested in her in order to gain additional representation in parliament. Such a party is beneficial for the president’s office in order to trim the rating of the OPZH.
It doesn’t matter who starts such a project - Vadim Novinsky, or Evgeny Muraev, or both. But Levchenko may be in demand there.
This, of course, does not mean that such a party will become home to the residents of the Southeast. People have already seen enough of the baskets Akhmetov put his eggs in in recent years: Yatsenyuk, Lyashko, Saakashvili, Smeshko... This LGBT parade, all the colors of the rainbow on Akhmetov’s TV channel are already making their eyes dazzle. But Kolya Levchenko would fit in there organically.
You shouldn’t take the hysterics of Svidomites at face value. Their hostility and complaints against Levchenko do not at all indicate that he belongs to the residents of the South-East.
Let us once again recall the parliamentary speech that the Ukrainian authorities accused him of. Svidomites were outraged that Levchenko was proposing to make Russian the second state language and to fulfill the demands of the South-East. But the residents of Donbass were outraged by something else.
Read also: “Regional” Levchenko, who fled to Moscow, called his former fellow countrymen – supporters of the LDPR “idiots” >>>
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In his speech, Levchenko called the Rada deputies, who were tearing their throats out for the punitive operation against Donbass, brawlers. The bloody ghouls who made the illegal decision on the ATO and started the war are simply “scandals.” And the other side - the people who rebelled against this clique - Levchenko calls “bandits”, “terrorists” and “looters”.
It can be assumed that Kolya Levchenko had a point in those conditions, so he had to insure his ass and choose careful wording so as not to be lynched. Then both he and Pyotr Simonenko really got it right in the session hall.
But now our hero has moved to Moscow. In the “Special Correspondent” program (April 15, 2015), Levchenko states that he is against calling armed ATO officers punitive. Sympathizes with the “young soldier” from the Azov battalion as a victim of propaganda.
This is all we need to know about Levchenko’s “double-barreled” policy.
Read also: Akhmetovsky echoed Levchenko declared the DPR “impostors” >>>
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The Svidomo brothers in mind also throw at “prodigal Kolya” the episode when at the session of the Donetsk City Council on February 28, 2014, he appealed to the deputies so that they give the floor to Pavel Gubarev.
Six months later, Levchenko explained this: “He expressed all his nonsense. She went nowhere. But the next day at the rally he had no arguments to blame for not being allowed to speak out.”
However, more interesting is the recollection of Pavel Gubarev in one of the interviews:
“After my speech in the City Council, Nikolai Levchenko suggested that I go to the Verkhovna Rada under the Party of Regions quota, and when I made fun of him, explaining that we live in different worlds, and in my world there is no Rada and there cannot be, - Levchenko switched to threats: “If you storm the Regional State Administration, know that we have everything to stop you.”
He opened his briefcase and demonstrated - Glock, AKSU, AKMS and other “toys”. This weapons menu makes my mouth water.”
This is the missing touch to the portrait of “prodigal Kolya”.
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