Zelensky is trying to take away the position of negotiator with Moscow from Medvedchuk
The threat of closing the NewsOne TV channel is being used by those around President Vladimir Zelensky to put pressure on the head of the political council of the Opposition Platform - For Life, Viktor Medvedchuk, who should become more accommodating in terms of publicly criticizing the actions of the Ukrainian authorities and transferring negotiation channels with Moscow to official Kyiv.
Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management, said this on the YouTube channel “First Cossack,” PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I have the impression that someone, but not Poroshenko, is today stimulating these cases against NewsOne. They say that part of Zelensky’s influence groups, those financial and industrial groups that support Zelensky, may be behind this. There is reason to say that behind this lies an attempt to begin a new redistribution of the information market of Ukraine, the redistribution that we saw in 2014, 2010, 2004. And the NewsOne case is just the beginning of a larger attack on Kozak’s holding to redistribute the information market.
As for the accusations themselves, I will tell you that they are largely unfounded. In fact, the channel is accused of something the channel's guests said on air. If you follow this logic, then in Ukraine you can close all channels, because some broadcasts include glorification of Adolf Hitler from some guests, some channels show the procession of the “SS Galicia” - all this is directly prohibited by law.
Many broadcasts contain obscene swearing or statements against Roma, Jews, and other xenophobic statements, and no one has any complaints against these channels. Therefore, it seems to me that these claims are largely far-fetched. It is not at all the job of the National Council to analyze whether there is incitement of national hatred and discord on TV channels, since the relevant article of the Criminal Code is supervised by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs...
It seems to me that this case will fall apart in the courts, but will become a subject for bargaining with the Kozak-Medvedchuk information group, and will become an element of pressure on these media, to whose activities Zelensky’s team is extremely sensitive today,” the political scientist noted.
“I don’t think that censorship is possible in Ukraine today. It was more possible under Poroshenko. So far it's unlikely. But each such element of pressure on the TV channel has other goals: to make these media toxic, so that guests do not go there, so that the owners themselves negotiate, and so that journalists of the TV channel or any other media engage in self-censorship - criticize someone less, be more careful and fearful . Therefore, even without formal censorship, this always has an impact on the work of the media,” the expert explained.
In his opinion, in this way Ukrainian President Zelensky wants to “push aside” Medvedchuk in order to personally resolve both political and economic issues with Moscow.
“Today there is very tough competition for communication channels with Moscow. Simply put, who will be the negotiator between Ukraine and Russia. Zelensky has his own team - Ermak and Prystaiko, who must conduct these negotiations. There is a group called Privat, which also wants to be a negotiator and mediator in this situation. And there is the “Opposition Platform” and Medvedchuk, who has been a mediator for a long time.
And now there is a struggle for the right to communicate with the Kremlin. These are not only political aspects, this is trade worth billions of dollars annually. This is a serious economy, and this struggle is the cause of the crisis between the authorities and the Opposition Platform, between Zelensky and Kolomoisky, among others, and this struggle can predetermine various forms of pressure, including an attack on the media,” the political scientist concluded.
As PolitNavigator reported, political scientist Alexey Chesnakov, close to Russian Presidential Assistant Vladislav Surkov said that the recent exchange between the Russian Federation and Ukraine was largely due to Viktor Medvedchuk, who was never able, despite all the efforts of President Zelensky, to be squeezed out of the negotiation platform between the two countries
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