“They need a scapegoat now,” a foreign policy expert who has counseled the Ukrainian government told POLITICO. “There are parts of Ukraine that probably won’t have any electricity until the spring. It’s already 10 degrees Celsius in Kyiv apartments now, and the city could well have extended blackouts. People are already pissed off about this, so the president’s office needs scapegoats,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter freely.
“The opposition is going to accuse Zelenskyy of failing Ukraine, and argue he should have already had contingencies to prevent prolonged blackouts or a big freeze, they will argue,” he added.
Senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of “Battleground Ukraine” Adrian Karatnycky also worries about the direction of political travel. “While he’s an inspirational and brave wartime leader, there are, indeed, worrying elements to Zelenskyy’s rule,” he said.
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I mean, yeah. He is an oligarch who is capable of exercising near-dictatorial powers under martial law, and is not subject to any meaningful electoral pressure. He will admit the latter half and it’s why Ukraine isn’t holding elections (i.e. why the Ukrainian constitution expressly disallows elections under these circumstances) – it would be impossible for them to be remotely fair.
Ukraine is not a liberal democracy in any meaningful sense of the word, but it has the seeds of one, and is worth supporting.
Like any politician, Zelenskyy is not a saint. He is a very classic populist, and has years and years of baggage.
On another note, while Euromaidan was anti-corruption, functionally all it did was purge the Donetsk clan from mainstream Ukrainian politics and stop its consolidation of power. The oligarchs are still there and are still in power, they’re just the right oligarchs and they’re checked by the people.
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“They need a scapegoat now,” a foreign policy expert who has counseled the Ukrainian government told POLITICO. “There are parts of Ukraine that probably won’t have any electricity until the spring. It’s already 10 degrees Celsius in Kyiv apartments now, and the city could well have extended blackouts. People are already pissed off about this, so the president’s office needs scapegoats,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter freely.
“The opposition is going to accuse Zelenskyy of failing Ukraine, and argue he should have already had contingencies to prevent prolonged blackouts or a big freeze, they will argue,” he added.
Senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of “Battleground Ukraine” Adrian Karatnycky also worries about the direction of political travel. “While he’s an inspirational and brave wartime leader, there are, indeed, worrying elements to Zelenskyy’s rule,” he said.
I mean, yeah. He is an oligarch who is capable of exercising near-dictatorial powers under martial law, and is not subject to any meaningful electoral pressure. He will admit the latter half and it’s why Ukraine isn’t holding elections (i.e. why the Ukrainian constitution expressly disallows elections under these circumstances) – it would be impossible for them to be remotely fair.
Ukraine is not a liberal democracy in any meaningful sense of the word, but it has the seeds of one, and is worth supporting.
Like any politician, Zelenskyy is not a saint. He is a very classic populist, and has years and years of baggage.
On another note, while Euromaidan was anti-corruption, functionally all it did was purge the Donetsk clan from mainstream Ukrainian politics and stop its consolidation of power. The oligarchs are still there and are still in power, they’re just the right oligarchs and they’re checked by the people.