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The Swiss MP and former editor-in-chief of the Tribune de Genève, Man Mettan, paints a portrait of the acrobat who performs the position of president of Ukraine. He reveals how this public entertainer turned an ally of the Banderists and arrange a dictatorship for them.
“Héros de la liberté”, “Hero of Our Time”, “Der Unbeugsame”, “The Unlikely Ukrainian Hero Who Defied Putin and United the World”, “Zelensky, Ukraine in blood”: the Western media and leaders now not know what superlatives to make use of to sing the praises of the Ukrainian president, so fascinated are they by the “wonderful resilience” of the comic miraculously remodeled right into a “warlord” and “saviour of democracy”.
For the previous three months, the Ukrainian head of state has been making the headlines, opening the information, inaugurating the Cannes Movie Competition, haranguing parliaments, congratulating and admonishing his colleagues on the head of states ten instances extra highly effective than he’s, with a happiness and tactical sense that no movie actor or political chief earlier than him had ever identified.
How will you not fall underneath the spell of this inconceivable Mr. Bean who, after conquering the general public together with his grimaces and extravagances (strolling bare in a store and mimicking a pianist taking part in together with his intercourse, for instance), was capable of swap his antics and gravelly puns for a grey-green T-shirt, a week-long beard and phrases stuffed with seriousness with the intention to provoke his troops who had been besieged by the evil Russian bear?
Since 24 February, Volodymyr Zelensky has unquestionably proved himself to be an exceptionally proficient artist in worldwide politics. Those that had adopted his profession as a comic weren’t stunned as a result of they knew his innate sense of improvisation, his mimetic talents and his audacity in appearing. The way in which he campaigned and defeated powerful opponents like former president Poroshenko in a number of weeks between 31 December 2018 and 21 April 2019, mobilising his manufacturing group and beneficiant oligarch donors, had already proved the extent of his abilities. But it surely remained to remodel the trial. This has now been finished.
TALENT FOR DOUBLE-DEALING
Nonetheless, as is commonly the case, the entrance hardly ever appears just like the backstage. The highlight hides greater than it reveals. And right here the image is lower than stellar: each his achievements as a head of state and his efficiency as a defender of democracy depart loads to be desired.
Zelensky’s expertise for double-dealing might be demonstrated as quickly as he’s elected. We recall that he was elected with a rating of 73.2% of the votes, promising to place an finish to corruption, to guide Ukraine on the trail of progress and civilisation, and above all to make peace with the Russian-speaking Donbass. As quickly as he was elected, he betrayed all his guarantees with such premature zeal that his recognition ranking fell to 23% in January 2022, to the purpose of being outdistanced by his two essential opponents.
From Could 2019, to fulfill his oligarch sponsors, the newly elected president is launching an enormous land privatisation programme protecting 40 million hectares of fine agricultural land underneath the pretext that the moratorium on land gross sales would have price the nation’s GDP billions of {dollars}. Within the wake of the “de-communisation“ and “de-Russification“ programmes begun for the reason that pro-US coup of February 2014, he’s launching an unlimited operation of privatisation of state property, fiscal austerity, deregulation of labour legal guidelines and dismantling of commerce unions, angering a majority of Ukrainians who had not understood what their candidate meant by “progress”, “westernisation” and “normalisation“ of the Ukrainian financial system. In a rustic that, in 2020, had a per capita earnings of three,726 {dollars} towards 10,126 {dollars} for the Russian opponent, whereas in 1991 the common earnings of Ukraine exceeded that of Russia, the comparability isn’t flattering. And it’s comprehensible that the Ukrainians didn’t applaud this umpteenth neoliberal reform.
As for the march in the direction of civilisation, it’s going to take the type of one other decree which, on 19 Could 2021, ensures the domination of the Ukrainian language and bans Russian from all spheres of public life, administrations, colleges and companies, a lot to the satisfaction of the nationalists and the astonishment of the Russian-speaking folks within the south-east of the nation.
A RUNAWAY SPONSOR
The document on corruption isn’t any higher. In 2015, the Guardian estimated that Ukraine was probably the most corrupt nation in Europe. In 2021, Transparency Worldwide, a western NGO based mostly in Berlin, ranked Ukraine 122nd on the planet for corruption, near the despised Russia (136th). Not sensible for a rustic that passes for a paragon of advantage within the face of Russian barbarians. Corruption is in every single place, in ministries, administrations, public firms, parliament, the police, and even within the Excessive Courtroom of Anti-Corruption Justice in response to the Kyiv Put up! It’s not unusual to see judges driving round in Porsches, the newspapers observe.
Zelensky’s essential sponsor, Ihor Kolomoïsky, who lives in Geneva the place he has luxurious places of work overlooking the harbour, isn’t the least of those oligarchs who revenue from the prevailing corruption: on 5 March 2021, Anthony Blinken, who most likely had no alternative, introduced that the State Division had frozen his property and banned him from the USA due to “involvement in important corruption“. It’s true that Kolomoysky was accused of embezzling $5.5 billion from the state-owned Privatbank. Coincidentally, the great Ihor was additionally the primary shareholder of the oil holding firm Burisma, which employed Joe Biden’s son Hunter for a modest compensation of $50,000 a month and which is now underneath investigation by the Delaware prosecutor. A clever precaution: Kolomoisky, who has grow to be persona non grata in Israel and is a refugee in Georgia in response to some witnesses, isn’t more likely to seem on the stand.
This is similar Kolomoïsky, who was a key determine in Ukraine’s progress, and who made Zelensky’s complete profession as an actor and who’s implicated within the Pandora Papers affair revealed by the press in October 2021. These papers revealed that since 2012, the TV channel 1+1 belonging to the sulphurous oligarch had paid at least 40 million {dollars} to its star Zelensky and that the latter, shortly earlier than being elected president and with the assistance of his shut guard of Kryvyi Rih – the 2 Shefir brothers, one in every of whom is the writer of Zelensky’s scripts and the opposite the top of the State Safety Service, and the producer and proprietor of their joint manufacturing firm Kvartal 95 – had prudently transferred appreciable sums to offshore accounts opened in his spouse’s title, whereas buying three undeclared flats in London for the sum of $7.5 million.
This style of the “servant of the folks“ (that’s the title of his TV sequence and his political get together) for non-proletarian consolation is confirmed by a photograph that briefly appeared on social networks and was instantly deleted by anti-complot fact-checkers, which confirmed him taking his ease in a tropical palace at a number of tens of hundreds of {dollars} an evening when he was presupposed to be spending his winter holidays in a modest ski resort within the Carpathians.
The artwork of tax optimisation and the assiduous affiliation with controversial oligarchs don’t argue in favour of an unconditional presidential dedication to preventing corruption. Nor does the truth that he tried to take away the troublesome president of the Constitutional Courtroom, Oleksandr Tupytskyi, and appointed him prime minister after his predecessor, Oleksyi Goncharuk, left workplace because of scandal, an unknown man known as Denys Chmynal, however who had the advantage of operating one of many factories of the richest man within the nation, Rinat Akhmetov, proprietor of the well-known Azovstal manufacturing facility, the final refuge of the heroic freedom fighters of the Azov battalion. Fighters who sported tattoos on their arms, necks, backs or chests glorifying the Wolfsangel of the SS Das Reich Division, phrases from Adolf Hitler or swastikas, as seen on the numerous movies launched by the Russians after their give up.
HOSTAGE OF AZOV BATTALIONS
For the rapprochement of the flamboyant Volodymyr with probably the most excessive representatives of the Ukrainian nationalist proper isn’t the least of Dr. Zelensky’s oddities. This complicity was instantly denied with the best virulence by the Western press, which judged it scandalous due to the president’s instantly rediscovered Jewish origins. How might a Jewish president sympathise with neo-Nazis, who’re offered as a tiny minority of outsiders? One shouldn’t give credit score to Vladimir Putin’s “denazification” operation…
And but the info are cussed and much from trivial.
It’s sure that Zelensky personally has by no means been near neo-Nazi ideology and even to the Ukrainian nationalist far proper. His Jewish ancestry, even when comparatively distant and by no means claimed earlier than February 2022, clearly excludes any antisemitism on his half. This rapprochement subsequently doesn’t betray an affinity however is a matter of banal raison d’état and a well-understood combination of pragmatism and the intuition for bodily and political survival.
One has to return to October 2019 to know the character of the connection between Zelensky and the far proper. And it’s a must to perceive that these far-right formations, even when they solely weigh 2% of the voters, nonetheless symbolize practically one million extremely motivated and well-organised people who find themselves unfold throughout quite a few groupings and actions, of which the Azov regiment (co-founded and financed as early as 2014 by Kolomoysky, nonetheless him!) is simply the perfect identified. To it have to be added the organisations Aïdar, Dnipro, Safari, Svoboda, Pravy Sektor, C14 and Nationwide Corps to be full.
C14, named after the variety of phrases within the American neo-Nazi David Lane’s phrase (“We should safe the existence of our folks and a future for white youngsters”), is likely one of the least identified overseas however most feared for its racist violence in Ukraine. All of those teams had been kind of merged into the Ukrainian military and nationwide guard on the initiative of their chief, former inside minister Arsen Avakov, who dominated the Ukrainian safety equipment unchallenged from 2014 to 2021. They’re those Zelensky calls “veterans” since autumn 2019.
Just a few months after his election, the younger president went to Donbass to attempt to fulfil his election promise and implement the Minsk agreements signed by his predecessor. The far-right forces, who’ve been shelling the cities of Donetsk and Lugansk since 2014 at the price of ten thousand deaths, welcome him with the best circumspection as a result of they’re suspicious of this “pacifist” president. They’re waging a cruel marketing campaign towards peace underneath the slogan “No give up”. In a single video, a pale Zelensky pleads with them: “I’m the president of this nation. I’m 41 years previous. I’m not a loser. I’m coming to you and saying: take the weapons out.” The video was launched on social networks and Zelensky instantly turned the goal of a hate marketing campaign. This would be the finish of his want for peace and the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
Shortly after this incident, a minor withdrawal of the extremist forces occurred, after which the bombing resumed in earnest.
NATIONALIST CRUSADE
The issue is that not solely has Zelensky given in to their blackmail however he’s becoming a member of them of their nationalist campaign. After his failed expedition in November 2019, he receives a number of far-right leaders, together with Yehven Taras, the chief of C14, whereas his prime minister stands by Andryi Medvedko, a neo-Nazi determine suspected of homicide. He additionally helps the footballer Zolzulya towards Spanish followers who accuse him of being a Nazi due to his proclaimed assist for Stepan Bandera, the nationalist chief who collaborated with Nazi Germany throughout the conflict (and with the CIA after the conflict) and took part within the Jewish Holocaust.
Collaboration with nationalist radicals is properly established. In November final 12 months, Zelensky appointed the ultra-nationalist Pravy Sektor Dmytro Yarosh as particular adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military and, since February 2022, as head of the Volunteer Military, which is waging terror within the rear. On the similar time, he appointed Oleksander Poklad, nicknamed “the strangler” due to his style for torture, as head of the SBU’s counter-intelligence unit. In December, two months earlier than the conflict, it was the flip of one other Pravy Sektor chief, Commander Dmytro Kotsuybaylo, to be rewarded with the title of “Hero of Ukraine” whereas, every week after the beginning of hostilities, Zelensky had the regional governor of Odessa changed by Maksym Marchenko, commander of the ultranationalist Aïdar battalion, the exact same one with whom Bernard-Henri Lévy would make some extent of marching.
Need to appease the far proper by giving them positions? Shared ultra-patriotism? Or a easy convergence of pursuits between a neo-liberal, Atlanticist, pro-Western proper and a nationalist far proper that goals of smashing Russians and “main the white races of the world in a closing campaign towards the Untermenschen guided by the Semites”, within the phrases of former deputy Andryi Biletsky, chief of the Nationwide Corps? It’s not clear, as no journalist has ventured to ask Zelensky this query.
What isn’t doubtful, nonetheless, is the more and more authoritarian, even felony, drift of the Ukrainian regime. A lot in order that its zealots ought to assume twice earlier than nominating their idol for the Nobel Peace Prize. Whereas the media look the opposite means, an actual marketing campaign of intimidation, kidnappings and executions is underway towards native and nationwide elected officers suspected of being Russian brokers or of connivance with the enemy as a result of they wish to keep away from an escalation of the battle.
“One much less traitor in Ukraine! He was discovered killed and was tried by the folks’s courtroom!” That is how the adviser to the Inside Minister, Anton Gerashenko, introduced on his Telegram account the homicide of Volodymyr Strok, mayor and former deputy of the small city of Kremnina. Suspected of getting collaborated with the Russians, he was kidnapped and tortured earlier than being executed. On 7 March, the mayor of Gostomel was killed as a result of he had tried to barter a humanitarian hall with the Russian navy. On 24 March, the mayor of Kupyansk requested Zelensky to launch his daughter, who had been kidnapped by SBU brokers. On the similar time, one of many Ukrainian negotiators was discovered lifeless after being accused of treason by the nationalist media. At least eleven mayors have been reported lacking to this point, together with in areas by no means occupied by the Russians…
PROHIBITED OPPOSITION PARTIES
However the repression doesn’t cease there. It hit the important media, which had been all closed down, and the opposition events, which had been all dissolved.
In February 2021, Zelensky closed down three opposition channels deemed to be pro-Russian and supposedly owned by the oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, NewsOne, Zik and 112 Ukraine. The State Division hails this assault on press freedom, stating that the US helps Ukrainian efforts to counter Russia’s malign affect…” In January 2022, a month earlier than the conflict, Nash was shut down. After the conflict started, the regime went on a hunt for left-wing journalists, bloggers and commentators. Originally of April, two right-wing channels had been additionally affected. Channel 5 and Pryamiy. A presidential decree obliges all channels to broadcast a single, pro-government tone of voice, in fact. Lately the witch-hunt even prolonged to the nation’s hottest important blogger, Ukraine’s Navalny, Anatoliy Shariy, who was arrested on 4 Could by the Spanish authorities on the request of the Ukrainian political police. Assaults on the press at the very least equal to these of the autocrat Putin, however by no means heard of within the Western media…
The purge was much more extreme for political events. It decimated Zelensky’s essential opponents. Within the spring of 2021, the house of the primary opponent, Medvedchuk, seemingly near Putin, was ransacked and its proprietor positioned underneath home arrest. On 12 April, the oligarch deputy was forcibly interned in an undisclosed location, visibly drugged, disadvantaged of visits earlier than being proven on TV and supplied in change for the discharge of the Azovstal defenders, in defiance of all of the Geneva conventions. His legal professionals, threatened, had to surrender defending him in favour of somebody near the companies.
Final December, it was Petro Poroshenko, who was rising within the polls, who was accused of treason. On 20 December 2021, at 3.07 pm, the official SBU web site listed him as a suspect for crimes of treason and assist for terrorist actions. The previous president was accused of “making Ukraine vitality depending on Russia and the leaders of the Russian-controlled pseudo-republics.”
On 3 March, activists of the Lizvizia Left had been raided by the SBU and imprisoned by the dozen. Then on 19 March, repression hit the entire of the Ukrainian left. By decree, eleven left-wing events had been banned: Celebration for Life, Left Opposition, Progressive Socialist Celebration of Ukraine, Socialist Celebration of Ukraine, Union of Left Forces, Socialists, Sharyi Celebration, Ours, State, Opposition Bloc Volodymyr Saldo.
Different activists, bloggers and human rights defenders are arrested and tortured, journalist Yan Taksyur, activist Elena Brezhnaya, MMA boxer Maxim Ryndovskiy or lawyer Elena Viacheslavova, whose father was charred to loss of life within the pogrom of two Could 2014 on the Odessa Home of Commerce Unions.
To finish this checklist, we must always point out the women and men stripped bare and whipped in public by the nationalists within the streets of Kiev, the Russian prisoners crushed and shot within the legs earlier than being executed, the soldier whose eye was pierced earlier than being killed, the members of the Georgian Legion who executed Russian prisoners in a village close to Kiev, whereas their chief boasted that he by no means took prisoners. On the Ukraine 24 channel, it was the top of the military’s medical service who mentioned he had given the order “to castrate all Russian males as a result of they’re subhuman and worse than cockroaches”. Lastly, Ukraine is making in depth use of facial recognition expertise from the corporate Clearview to determine lifeless Russians and broadcast their pictures on Russian social networks, ridiculing them…
AN OSCAR-WINNING ACTOR
The examples could possibly be multiplied, as there are such a lot of quotes and movies of atrocities dedicated by the troops of the defender of democracy and human rights who presides over the future of Ukraine. However this is able to be tedious and counterproductive with a public opinion satisfied that these barbaric behaviours are solely as a result of Russians.
This is the reason no NGO is alarmed, the Council of Europe is silent, the Worldwide Legal Courtroom isn’t investigating, and press freedom organisations are silent. They haven’t listened properly to what the kindly Volodymyr advised them throughout a go to to Butcha originally of April: “If we don’t discover a civilised means out, you realize our folks, they are going to discover an uncivilised means out.”
Ukraine’s drawback is that its president, willingly or unwillingly, has ceded energy to extremists internally and to the NATO navy externally with the intention to indulge within the pleasure of being worshipped by crowds world wide. Was it not he who advised a French journalist on 5 March, ten days after the Russian invasion: “At this time, my life is gorgeous. I consider I’m needed. I really feel that that is crucial which means of my life: to be needed. To really feel that you’re not simply respiration, strolling and consuming one thing. You might be residing!”
We advised you: Zelensky is a superb actor. Like his predecessor as Dr. Jekill & Mr. Conceal in 1932, he deserves to win the Oscar for finest male position of the last decade. However when he’s confronted with the duty of rebuilding his nation after a conflict, he might have prevented in 2019, the return to actuality could also be troublesome.
Sources
«The Comic-Turned-President is Severely in Over His Head», Olga Rudenko, New York Occasions, February 21, 2022 (Opinion Visitor from Kyyiv Put up).
«How Zelensky made Peace With Neo-Nazis», and «Zelensky’s Hardline Inner Purge», Alex Rubinstein and Max Blumenthal, Consortium Information, March 4 and April 20, 2022.
«Olga Baysha Interview about Ukraine’s President», Natylie Baldwin, The Grayzone, April 28, 2022.
«President of Ukraine Zelensky has visited disengaging area in Zolote today», @Liveupmap, 26 October 2019 (Watch on Twitter).
«Qu’est-ce que le régiment Azov?», Adrien Nonjon, The Dialog, 24 mai 2022.
«Public Designation of Oligarch and Former Ukrainian Public Official Ihor Kolomoyskyy On account of Involvement in Important Corruption», Press assertion, Anthony J. Blinken, US Division of State, March 5, 2021.
«Petro Poroshenko notified of suspicion of treason and aiding terrorism», Safety Service of Ukraine, 20 December 2021.
«Un maire ukrainien prorusse enlevé et abattu», Michel Pralong, Le Matin, 3 mars 2022,
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