Destroying Ukraine as Intended
President Volodymyr Zelensky's ineffable communication failure
It was a pathetic performance, one of Volodymyr Zelensky’s worst.
There were few difficult questions during the hours-long ordeal, marked by long diatribes. Ukraine’s president lost his train of thought several times during the three-hour press conference in Kyiv and had to be reminded by his handlers what he was talking about.
Zelensky appeared eager to talk about leaked recordings made in the office of his predecessor, Ukraine’s fifth President Petro Poroshenko. (Snippets of conversations between Poroshenko and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former U.S. President Joe Biden were released by a day earlier by member of parliament Andriy Derkach, giving the Prosecutor General’s Office just enough time to register a investigation of treason against Poroshenko before the start of the press conference.)
“As for me being the ‘verdict’ against Mr. Poroshenko ... I’m sure that all this is yet to come. You all saw yesterday’s scandal. I think they [Poroshenko and is team] governed the state in such a manner that they will face many different adventures and verdicts. …I don’t want to talk about it, because this is not my authority. The matter is up to the court," Zelensky said.
Selective justice is common in Ukraine. “Friviolous, politically motivated criminal investigations against political rivals is a feature of ultra-competitive Ukraine-style politics.” (cf. 1,700-word op-ed, titled One Year Later: Zelensky’s Moment of Reckoning, appearing in The American Interest)
Poroshenko is also suspected of illegally appointing of two members of Ukraine's High Court of Justice and illegally interfering in the work of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, as well as in the affairs of the Kyiv Regional Administrative Court involving the nationalization of PrivatBank. In addition, he has been accused of improperly appointing judges and a slew of other make-believe crimes.
Roman Skrypin provides additional nuance for foreign Ukraine experts here:
(to be continued)