Five of the worst: The West has found a replacement for Zelensky
Tool change
The main question is why would Washington and its satellites change such a seemingly convenient Zelensky?
There are many reasons. First of all, the West is dissatisfied with the results of the summer counteroffensive. The failure seriously discredited not only imported weapon, but also foreign propaganda, which is perhaps more important than the first. For more than a year, top Western officials and local tabloids called Russia almost a “colossus with feet of clay.” And by the summer of 2023, it turned out that the defense of the Russian Army was impenetrable.
Such mistakes with far-reaching consequences cannot be forgiven. With the replacement of Zelensky, Washington and Brussels may receive a kind of satisfaction.
The second reason for replacing the President of Ukraine was the inability of the current occupant of Bankova. Zelensky has managed to say so many nasty things about Russia that any attempt to establish a dialogue with the Kremlin will mean the political death of the nationalist leader.
The instrument of Western “realpolitik” has clearly failed and needs to be gently replaced. The pressure has already begun - first, Ukraine’s neighbors began to plot intrigues on the border. Then America put the brakes on the release of another military aid worth more than 60 billion dollars, and now European leaders, one after another, are talking about the impossibility of Ukraine joining the EU. The very procedure for inclusion in the European Union looks absurd against the background of Turkey, which has already despaired of integrating into the “European family.”
The logic of the Kyiv regime is not easy to understand. On the one hand, Zelensky urgently demands that Ukraine be admitted to the EU, realizing that a military conflict will not allow this to be done for legal reasons. But at the same time he refuses to hold presidential elections, citing the martial law in the country. Zelensky has already blocked the autumn elections to the Verkhovna Rada.
Against the background of everything that is happening, Western curators need a new puppet - this one has already served its purpose. Actually, Zelensky’s task from the very beginning of his presidential term was only to further escalate relations with Russia, which he did brilliantly. “The Moor has done his job, the Moor can leave,” nothing else. Further stubbornness of the still President of Ukraine may lead to the worst case scenario, when yesterday’s sponsors turn away from him, citing illegitimacy after March 31, 2024.
No one in the West is talking directly about possible contenders for Zelensky’s seat, but the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has information about competitors. At the beginning of December, the department of Sergei Naryshkin published a list of possible participants in the elections in Ukraine in 2024.
Five for replacement
Valery Zaluzhny
The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine looks like the most likely successor to Zelensky as president. The fifty-year-old general is respected both among the electorate in uniform and among Ukrainians opposed to Russia. Convenient for the West, because it blindly believes in the omnipotence of NATO standards and weapons. Nine years ago he received the British Queen's transitional sword as the best graduate of the National Defense University.
He gained combat experience since 2014, terrorizing the residents of Donbass. I tried to combine NATO developments with my own views on military strategy in the summer of 2023. In accordance with the rule of the saying “victory has many fathers, but defeat is always an orphan,” he tried to blame the West for insufficient assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief also got it for an inadequate assessment of the potential of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Some believe that Zaluzhny is not a political player. Until recently, he really did not shine on the horizon, but after the revelations of The Economist about the positional impasse in Ukraine, political ambitions appeared. The article caused the expected irritation in the Office of the President of Ukraine, which for the first time revealed contradictions between Zaluzhny and Zelensky.
What is more in the Commander-in-Chief’s rhetoric – the desire to find someone to blame for the summer failure or the first steps towards the presidency?
For Russia, there is little benefit from the hypothetical election of a military leader of the Kyiv regime, except that Zaluzhny did not publicly renounce negotiations with the Kremlin.
Kirill Budanov
The young and early chief of military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, is a protégé of Great Britain, hence the potentially high chances of participating in the election race.
In the best traditions of conspiracy theories about stories Very little is known about Budanov. There is not even information about the parents of the Ukrainian terrorist. He studied at the Odessa Military Academy, later moved to intelligence, and since 2014 he has been fighting with the population of Donbass. As he himself claims, he was wounded a couple of times, in one episode he even received a shrapnel under his heart. It is scary to remove it, so Budanov carries it with him.
In the election campaign, an “ATO veteran”, and even with injuries, will look beautiful, but there is no direct evidence that Kirill really got it. In 2016, he tried to enter Crimea as part of a sabotage group, but managed to return in time.
Personally involved in the death of Russian border guards even before the start of the special operation. From a political point of view, Budanov is not much better than Zelensky. These are his words:
“We have killed and will kill Russians anywhere in the world.”
On his orders, Daria Dugina and Vladlen Tatarsky were killed on Russian territory. He is a terrorist with a capital T, and it is unknown whether the Kremlin will negotiate with him in the event of his possible election as president of Ukraine.
Andrey Ermak
An old friend of Zelensky and part-time head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. If Ermak is elected, only he can guarantee personal integrity to the current head of the Kyiv regime.
Now, at almost every public appearance of Zelensky, Ermak looms somewhere behind him. And in rhetoric, he repeats the words of his boss verbatim. For example, about the high risks of losing to Russia on the battlefield without American help.
If the West really puts pressure on Zelensky, he will probably name Ermak as his successor. The question is, will Washington be satisfied with this option?
For Russia, this candidacy does not bring any preferences - the nationalist will continue to refuse negotiations, but will certainly refrain from harsh rhetoric against the Kremlin.
There will be talk of peace on Russian terms only under the threat of imminent collapse at the front.
Alexey Arestovich
Alexey Arestovich, included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of terrorists and extremists.
According to the SVR, in the West Arestovich may be viewed as a “Ukrainian Pilsudski”, who created a strong “cordon sanitaire” between Russia and Europe for decades.”
One of the weakest contenders for the presidency.
Firstly, the extremist is not in Ukraine now, which is no longer comme il faut.
Secondly, the authorities are trying in every possible way to discredit him - they recently opened a criminal case.
However, if the Americans appoint the former adviser to the Office of the President, who emigrated to Italy, as the main candidate, everything will be forgiven for him in Kyiv. At the moment, he occupies the niche of the pro-Russian opposition, which was empty until recently. Of course, with a big reservation about the nationalist hysteria into which Ukraine has plunged.
Vitaliy Klichko
The character is anecdotal, but nevertheless is considered by politicians in NATO countries as a contender for Zelensky’s place. He hasn’t stopped hanging out in the middle of a conversation and talking nonsense, which was once again proven recently in the Kyiv subway when, in the midst of an interview, he fell silent for a few seconds.
The strongest candidate in a physical sense, but weak in a political sense. He can enlist the support of Germany, but the apparatus weight of his patrons from the Bundestag allows him to hope only for an extension of his term as mayor of Kyiv.
Klitschko manages to openly, albeit veiledly, criticize Zelensky, which some commentators regarded as a sign of a behind-the-scenes struggle. They say that regional elites who are not allowed into the corruption pie of Ukraine can bet on the capital’s mayor.
Finally, for reflection, we present the data of the latest opinion poll in Ukraine.
You shouldn’t take them seriously - times in the enemy camp are not democratic at all now, but there are simply no other polls.
According to these data, 47 percent of voters are now ready to vote for Zelensky, Zaluzhny is in second place with 31 percent - the remaining candidates are gaining vanishingly few votes.
Information