Zelensky and the sacred cows of Maidan
So, the Ukrainian political puzzle of the post-Poroshenko era has, by and large, already taken shape. The new personnel vertical is either already staffed with fresh people, or is in the final stages of such recruitment.
There is the president, his Office, the government, the new Rada, new ministers and their deputies, new leadership of the army and intelligence services. And all this is in one hand and with one party card in one’s pocket.
Now is the time to talk about where this team will direct the ship of state and to what purposes the state mechanism it has mastered will be subordinated.
And this is where the problems begin. On the one hand, of course, the president spoke, followed by the prime minister, the speaker, and both the laws, decrees and other decisions that have been adopted and those being prepared for adoption are already known. It would seem that the goals have been defined, the tasks have been set, let’s get to work, gentlemen! But, if you look at all this chaotic flickering of new faces from the outside, you cannot get rid of a persistent feeling of some duality, political madness.
On the one hand, we see a seemingly quite clearly articulated desire of the country’s new leadership to end the sluggish conflict in the Donbass and find conditions that would somehow make it possible to make peace with its northern neighbor. Moreover, Bankovaya sends very specific messages in this regard – to both internal and external audiences. And unlike the times of Poroshenko, these messages do not differ by 180 degrees, which is noted even in the Kremlin. In addition, Putin’s conversations with Zelensky, according to him, “inspire cautious optimism”.
On the other hand, even, it would seem, having concentrated almost all power in its hands (except for local councils), the Ze! Team was unable to take any decisive and quick steps towards peace, which part of society expected from it. Many issues, in particular regarding the introduction of constitutional changes in the Donbass, have been paused for now. To solve others, some workarounds are being sought, as they say in Kyiv, an “upgrade”, so that “normal heroes” can save face not only in front of the “peace party”, but also in front of internal “hawks”.
At the same time, we must pay tribute, right now we are seeing the beginning of real progress in fulfilling some of the Ukrainian obligations within the framework of the same “Minsk”, which have been stuck since 2016.
This refers to the upcoming “big exchange” and the release, in preparation for it, of a number of people significant for the “pro-Russian” party - Vyshinsky, Mefedov, Tsemakh - whose release to freedom under Poroshenko was simply impossible to imagine.
At the same time, you need to understand that Zelensky and Co. are taking a big risk with these liberations and are literally walking on a razor’s edge - if the agreements break down for some reason, the right will accuse them of “betrayal,” “weakness,” “cowardice,” “readiness follow the Kremlin’s lead” – namely Bankovaya and its owner.
Or take domestic politics. On the one hand, we see here such characters as Andrei Portnov, whose vigorous activity in pinning down Poroshenko and Co. would have been impossible without unspoken guarantees and working hand in hand with the presidential office - the head of which Andrei Bogdan is a former student of Portnov.
This circumstance is so obvious that the nationalist activists put it on their posters, where it is written in black and white that “Bogdan is Portnov,” and Portnov in their understanding is the “Kremlin,” or rather, what the nationalists themselves perceive as signs of a certain “pro-Russian revenge” in the country.
At the same time, Portnov himself insists that the new government decisively and firmly dissociate itself from the “legacy of the Maidan”, closing the “revolutionary era” once and for all. Hence the calls in Portnov’s telegram channel for the abolition of the odious laws on lustration and amnesty for Maidan militants, for a serious investigation into the role of characters like Andrei Parubiy in the Odessa tragedy of 2014, and so on.
On the other hand, the same government, which with one hand encourages and covers up Portnov’s activities, with the other hand appoints to various positions in the Cabinet of Ministers or in the Office of the President people for whom what Portnov calls for is so unacceptable that they willingly join the corresponding rhetoric of their comrades-in-arms Poroshenko, becoming indistinguishable from the average gunpowder robot.
This is also the newly appointed head of the Servants of the People faction in the Rada, formerly a prominent volunteer gunsmith, David Arakhamia. This is the newly appointed deputy head of the Presidential Office, Anna Kovalenko, a former centurion of the 39th women’s hundred of the Maidan Self-Defense, a former adviser to the Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak. Moreover, the appointment of this girl caused not only laughter and bewilderment among the conventionally “soft” part of the political audience, but also outright mockery from the “hawks”.
Here is what, in particular, ex-volunteer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and former presidential candidate Yuri Kasyanov, one of the Ukrainian “people of 2014” who raised the topic of war and military mobilization, writes about this: “The centurion of the “women’s hundred” of the Maidan (why not the children’s one?), advisor to three ministers (two of which are defense ministers!), expert on defense and security issues (I laugh – I can’t), “servant of the people”, and now - Deputy Head of the President's Office. Gorgeous. Sportswoman. Komsomolskaya Pravda. 28 years old... Don't be jealous. You just don't know how to live».
fools of the Maidan
No less than the advice of the activist of the “Women’s Hundred of Maidan” in the field of defense, the benefit of overseeing humanitarian policy regarding the uncontrolled part of Donbass in the new Ministry of Culture performed by another EuroMaidan activist, a former grant-funded Crimean “human rights activist” Alexandra Dvoretskaya, is also questionable.
possessed butler
The famous Kiev left-wing sociologist Vladimir Ishchenko described her as “a hater and a witch hunter who does not march in line.” Now she will be responsible for “the direction of humanitarian and information policy in relation to the temporarily occupied territories.”
Considering the recent interviews with her boss, the new head of the Ministry of Culture Vladimir Borodyansky, who, in fact, undertook to develop this very “humanitarian policy” for Ze, it is not at all difficult to imagine the final result.
And there are fears that the new policy will differ from a similar policy of the times of Poroshenko only in style and design, which is unlikely to help in the implementation of the plans announced by Zelensky himself, as well as the sane part of his entourage (Bogdan, Shefir, etc.) for pacification in the Donbass and his reintegration.
These and similar appointments of “Maidan heroes” to positions in the new government cause surprise and disappointment even among video blogger Shariy, who is quite loyal to the Zelensky regime. As well as the rhetoric of the presidential speech on Independence Day, which left a deeply ambivalent impression.
On the one hand, there is a clear and strong decrease in the degree of jingoistic rhetoric, from which almost all militant militaristic and anti-Russian notes have disappeared, and among the “pantheon of heroes of the nation” Petliura, Bandera and Shukhevych, so beloved by Poroshenko and Parubiy, were not mentioned.
On the other hand, the rituals for the “Holy Maidan”, “Revolution of Dignity”, “Heavenly Hundred” and “our heroes”, which remained unchanged since the previous five-year plan. It seems that the “leader of the nation” or his unknown speechwriters tried their best to please everyone - so that, as they say, the wolves “hit by the Maidan” were fed and the “cotton” sheep were as safe as possible. No wonder the presidential speech was imbued with the pathos of universal unity – both Ukrainian and Russian speakers.
In general, almost like Leopold the cat: guys, let's live together! But without a critical rethinking of the role of the Maidan and its organizers in the modern political history of the country - moreover, an official rethinking coming from the very top - no unity is possible. The country will continue to remain internally split, even if the government, as the current team is trying to do, ceases to be a generator of splitting factors and broadcasts the language of hostility, hatred and aggression to the masses.
So Shariy, already mentioned above, is completely right when, addressing Zelensky and Co., he says: guys, what are you doing? It’s time to stop currying favor with the beliefs of the minority, it’s time to stop trying to be good for 8% of Ukrainians and pay attention to the majority that elected you - precisely because the “Holy Maidan” did not bring anything good into their lives. They voted for you because the previous government, with its campaigns on the Maidan, got to their worst.
But the addressee of such criticism is quite vague. The current government only looks united and monolithic on the outside. In fact, the only thing that holds together this motley conglomerate of competing influence groups with their own goals and interests is Zelensky’s high rating, in which the population, tired of the chaos, saw the very “decisive president” they had dreamed of for so long, and now projects the most contradictory and often non-overlapping expectations onto his figure.
For the right, Zelensky will never become “one of our own” and “good”, even if he follows the “dear Poroshenko” bequeathed to him by his predecessor. But at the same time, Zelensky has the opportunity to become “good” for his own voters, who are still watching and waiting.
However, the resource of trust is an exhaustible thing. For this, in general, not much is needed - no “labors of Hercules” in the political field are required from Zelensky.
A few symbolic but clear gestures are enough: amendments leveling half a dozen odious laws of the Maidan era, the imprisonment of a dozen “Maidan heroes”, real and at the same time effective steps towards pacification in the Donbass - that’s probably all.
At the same time, by pursuing such a policy, Zelensky runs the risk of falling out with the small but extremely influential grant-eating environment, the same “spilnota” that is accustomed to developing a monopoly on the agenda and discourse for the authorities.
In the conditions of Ukrainian “colonial democracy”, this is a direct analogue of the American “deep state”, which, in conjunction with the special services and street radicals, and using the support of the majority of the systemic media, is able to successfully sabotage any undertakings that it considers harmful to itself and its masters.
Now many of these people have been pushed a little, they have “pouted their lips” and become offended. They are not satisfied with the fact that the new government, in their opinion, has deliberately set a course for the demobilization of society, for, as the mouthpieces of these forces write, “peace at any cost.”
The unwillingness to break with the “slackness”, especially demonstratively, and rely on alternative political circles due to their “muddy” in the social and media field, forces Zelensky to accompany each of his steps forward with the inevitable two steps back and repeated “ku” to the idols of his “preceders” . And the potential dissatisfaction of active representatives of the previous regime is mitigated by their co-optation into the structures of the new government.
Such a policy is especially fraught in a situation where Zelensky lacks his own ideology and outsources the ideological and humanitarian sphere to a motley group of advisers, among whom fosterlings of Western NGOs and Mogilyanka graduates play a very noticeable role - it is from this environment that the government is largely recruited.
Over time, this can lead to the fact that the tail begins to wag the dog and strategic decision-making ends up in the hands of anonymous advisers and experts, completely uncontrollable by society, but controlled from overseas.
Today this factor also exists, but for now it is balanced by the presence in power of proteges of domestic oligarchs and representatives of the national elite of the old draft - from those years when external dependence was not so strong, and the prevailing opinion was that Texas should be robbed by Texans.
The tactics of caution and maneuvering chosen today by Zelensky and Co. allow one to maintain balance over a short distance, but in the future it will not lead to anything good.
So, Zelensky’s main enemy today is himself, or rather, his already obvious unwillingness to give a decisive kick in the ass to the “sacred cows” that feasted on monopolized pastures in the previous five-year period.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.