Zelensky is heading towards an acrimonous divorce between himself and the people of Ukraine.

As the corona-virus epidemic moves into becoming a Global Pandemic, in a recent interview with Zelensky, conducted by Shaun Walker and Andrew Roth (left), Zelensky stated that,

"Interviewer: What’s the difference between playing a
 president on screen and being one in real life?

Zelensky:   “It’s very similar,” he says, his compact frame engulfed by a green leather
armchair in his opulent presidential office ..... [“Previous inhabitants felt very at home in these surroundings, I guess,” he says; they make him feel “horribly uncomfortable”. The most recent renovations were done by president Viktor Yanukovych, whose obscene corruption and cosying up to Russia prompted the 2014 Maidan revolution.]

 “It’s true there are more problems. They are catastrophic. They appear, I’m sorry to say, like pimples on an 18-year-old kid. You don’t know where they will pop up, or when.” 

The 42-year-old speaks in his native Russian, his expressive face switching from boyish amusement to tortured concern in a flash." (The Guardian : 7 March 2020) (my emphasis)

According to Vitaly Portnilov,

"The coalition of Zelenskyy with oligarchs Kolomoyskyi and Medvedchuk (left) now confidently rules Ukraine with the tacit support of another oligarch Akhmetov. It is a coalition of betrayal, Putin’s coalition. We should not pretend that in 2019 Zelenskyy’s voters did not vote for this coalition." (EuroMaidanPress: 7 March 2020) (my emphasis)

Furthermore, as Daryna Krasnolutska, Kateryna Choursina, and Volodymyr Verbyany report,

"Facing growing disillusionment among voters less than a year into his presidency, Zelenskiy replaced his prime minister and other cabinet members with more established officials. One even worked under the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in disgrace in 2014 after protesters ousted him."
......
 “These moves are unfortunately a step back in the reform movement,”said Mark McNamee, practice leader for Europe at research and advisory firm DuckerFrontier. “Zelenskiy seeks to stabilize the situation and achieve effective governance under known bureaucrats, however tainted they may be from their experience in previous governments.” (Bloomberg : 5 March 2020) (my emphasis)

More disconcerting, Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets report that,

"Ukraine's prosecutor general was axed in a parliamentary vote on Thursday night, the latest casualty in a sweeping reshuffle by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that has raised questions about the country's reform momentum.
......
One opposition lawmaker said removing [Ruslan] Ryaboshapka (right) would pave the way for an independent investigation into Burisma, the energy company where Hunter Biden used to be a board member." (Reuters: 5 March 2020) (my emphasis)

Trump himself could not have asked Zelensky for anything more than getting rid of Ruslan Ryaboshapka and putting in place someone that would help him attack Joe Biden during the upcoming 2020 US Presidential Election, who has beyond expectation moved into the forefront of becoming the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nominee, to the dismay of Putin himself.

 MSNBC : 5 March 2020

Even more galling for Putin, as Ray Browne reports, is the fact that,

"Members of Congress have been informally notified of the Defense Department's plans to provide $125 million in new military assistance to Ukraine, including armed patrol boats, according to a congressional aide and US official.

The new assistance package includes counter-artillery radars and armed Mark VI patrol boats, the latter of which is seen as particularly important given Ukraine's tensions with Russia in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov." (MSN News : 7 March 2020) (my emphasis)

Trump dare not drag his feet in signing off this military assistance to Ukraine since it will signify to the American public just how much he is beholden to Putin for helping him gain the White House in 2016.

Indeed, the Muller Report (Remember that?) which outlined just how much Putin helped Trump during the 2016 US presidential elections, is once again raising its head, to the utter consternation of William Barr, the US Solicitor General that Trump appointed to defend him at all costs.

We now learn from Eric Tucker that,

"A federal judge sharply rebuked Attorney General William Barr’s (right) handling of the special counsel’s Russia report, saying Barr had made “misleading public statements” to spin the investigation’s findings in favor of President Trump and had shown a “lack of candor.”

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton delivered the criticism in a 23-page order Thursday in which he directed the Justice Department to provide him with an unredacted version of the [Mueller] report so that he could decide if any additional information from the document could be publicly disclosed." (SF Gate: 6 March 2020) (my emphasis)

 MSNBC : 7 March 2020

For Zelensky,

• the political and military aid developments in the US
• getting rid of Ukraine's prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, 
• and beginning to fill his presidential cabinet with old officials, including some who had worked under Yanukovich, 

indicates that the mask of the President of Ukraine is slipping from his face and revealing the comic TV actor who views critical political problems as "pimples on an 18-year-old kid. You don’t know where they will pop up, or when.” 



Zelensky is heading towards an acrimonious divorce between himself and the people of Ukraine.

 

(to be continued)