Not the last victim of Zelensky. Zaluzhny vs. Arestovich. And together against the president
The comparison is not in favor
It has been said more than once that Vladimir Zelensky’s days as the president of Ukraine are numbered, but for two years now he has not been particularly in shape, but he is “holding the front.” And he removes his comrades-in-arms from their posts - one by one. In Russia, perhaps, only three are known - add ex-Minister of Defense Reznikov to Zaluzhny and Arestovich, but there are many more of them - sent to who knows where.
Nevertheless, the question of who will take the place of the Kyiv drug fuhrer and what the result of military actions will be for Ukraine, Russia and world stability as a whole is becoming more and more pressing.
Among those dismissed by Zelensky, two possible contenders stand out: Valery Zaluzhny and Alexey Arestovich.
In this case, there is no need for a first round of elections; you can immediately proceed to the second. Let's compare potential contenders.
Current occupation
Zaluzhny: former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Arestovich: freelance psychologist.
Age
Zaluzhny: 50.
Arestovich: 48.
Nationality
Zaluzhny: Ukrainian.
Arestovich: Belarusian (in a number of documents he appears as a Ukrainian).
Place of Birth
Zaluzhny: Zhitomir region of the Ukrainian SSR.
Arestovich: Georgian SSR, military town.
Social background
Zaluzhny: from a military family.
Arestovich: from a military family.
Education
Zaluzhny: higher military. Novograd-Volynsky Mechanical Engineering College; Odessa Higher United Command School; Odessa Academy of Ground Forces; Ostrog Academy; National Defense University of Ukraine named after Ivan Chernyakhovsky.
Arestovich: incomplete higher education – Faculty of Biology, University named after. Taras Shevchenko; Odessa Institute of Ground Forces; Author's school of psychology of Absalom Podvodny; Institute of Religious Sciences of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Specialties
Zaluzhny: engineer; general-arms and operational-strategic officer; diplomat.
Arestovich: military translator: military psychologist; actor; theologian.
Military service, rank
Zaluzhny: career military officer since 1997, current army general.
Arestovich: served from 1994 to 2005 and from 2014 to 2019, reserve lieutenant colonel.
Career
Zaluzhny: platoon commander; training platoon commander; combat platoon commander; commander of a training company; commander of a company of cadets; battalion commander; chief of staff - first deputy brigade commander; brigade commander; Deputy Sector Commander; Chief of Staff - First Deputy Commander of the Operational Command "West" of the Ukrainian Ground Forces; Chief of the Joint Operational Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - First Deputy Commander of the Joint Forces; Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Arestovich: according to various sources, he served as a translator either in the Ministry of Defense or in the Main Intelligence Directorate; deputy head of the administration of the Primorsky district of Odessa (only three months); after reinstatement in the army - instructor of the People's Reservist program; manager of a charitable foundation for psychological support for military personnel; mechanized brigade scout; advisor on information policy and official speaker of the Ukrainian delegation at the negotiations in Minsk; freelance advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense; Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Participation in hostilities
Zaluzhny: war (so-called ATO) in Donbass; combat operations 2022–2024 Awarded 14 state awards and a personalized pistol.
Arestovich: intelligence operation in 2018 near Kramatorsk. He was awarded two state awards and an award pistol.
Political activity
Zaluzhny: has no experience.
Arestovich: From 2005 to 2009 - member of the Brotherhood party of the Korça and Dugin Eurasian Union. Together with them, he took an active part in protests against color revolutions, organized protests of entrepreneurs and road carriers, and protests in support of the mayor of Odessa Gurvits. Currently he plans to establish the “Arestovich Party” and run for elections with it.
Current election position
Zaluzhny: The literary critic Belinsky wrote about Onegin and Lensky that they don’t know what they want, but they know what they don’t want. Same here story. Zaluzhny, who has no experience in politics, has still not been able to present his election program.
All the theses he presents boil down solely to criticism of the conduct of military operations with unjustified losses, in particular, during a failed counter-offensive, as well as criticism of the tyranny and dictatorial habits of Zelensky and his entourage.
These points are most clearly presented in his scandalous article for CNN. There is no talk about the economy or political reforms - only about the strategy for developing high technologies in the military-industrial complex. The rest is criticism of Zelensky and Bankova.
Arestovich: published a 14-point election program. Briefly, it can be reduced to a state of emergency in the economy with the aim of speeding up all procedures and fighting bureaucracy, reducing the base interest rate, tax reform, free medical insurance, and pension reform.
At the front - a transition from offensive to defensive tactics, liberalization of mobilization policy, a transition from military attempts to return the territories occupied by Russia to political dialogue. In fact, Arestovich is more interested in the quality of life of Ukrainians than in the prospects of continuing the war with unpredictable human losses.
Relations with the current government
Zaluzhny: already in September 2022, Zaluzhny hinted in a media interview about Zelensky’s incompetence in military matters. In September 2023, rumors appeared that Zaluzhny might go to court for the failure of the counteroffensive and cases of high treason in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (the latter was confirmed by the military prosecutor's office).
In the fall of 2023, he gave interviews to Western publications, where he admitted the virtual futility of further waging war. In the recording, made by an unknown person installed by a bug in Zaluzhny’s office, he does not mince words about the cartridge in Russian.
Arestovich: Rumor has it that Zelensky made Arestovich the main propagandist and promoted him from major to lieutenant colonel due to personal connections - they allegedly met on the set of a film during Arestovich’s acting days.
Well, maybe so. At least until January 2023, Arestovich regularly voiced what they wanted to hear on Bankova, not disdaining outright heresy and fakes. In January 2023, he suddenly began to tell the truth: and for starters, he said that a Russian missile fell on a residential building in the Dnieper due to an erroneous shooting down of Ukrainian air defense. After which he resigned.
Later, when Arestovich was already in the EU, then in the USA, beyond the reach of the Ukrainian special services, he began to criticize Zelensky and his inner circle, calling the president a dictator who was leading the country to disaster.
He has repeatedly recognized Russia’s military superiority against the backdrop of Zelensky’s inadequacy. He criticized the policy of forced Ukrainization, recognized the puppet nature of the Ukrainian government, compared Zelensky with Hitler and called for a truce with Russia, criticized ultranationalist circles.
Scandals, war crimes, criminal cases
Zaluzhny: In Russia, a criminal case was initiated in absentia against Zaluzhny under Part 1 of Art. 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Use of prohibited means and methods of warfare.”
In the spring, he disappeared from the media field for a month; different versions were circulated in the media: he was seriously wounded while visiting the front line, decided to hide due to disgrace, went on a drinking binge, and was liquidated by order of Zelensky. When he did appear in public, he was unable to convincingly explain the reasons for his disappearance.
A photo of Zaluzhny’s bracelet with a swastika appeared on the Internet; he claimed that it was photoshopped. There were accusations of withdrawing funds abroad and giving pretty girls-subordinates fabulously expensive gifts, although this has not been proven.
The authenticity of the documents according to which Zaluzhny’s daughter bought villas in Chile and the Canary Islands has also not been proven, but in general anything is possible. The biggest scandal is associated with the downing of IL-76, although it is not clear whether Zaluzhny was even aware that one of his subordinates had given such an order, and whose subordinate it was – his or Budanov’s.
After this, another scandal erupted: transcripts of wiretapping in the commander-in-chief’s office surfaced on the Internet, where he points out Zelensky’s homosexuality and drug addiction in conversations.
Arestovich: criminal cases: Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus “calls for terrorist attacks”, Art. 205.2, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Public calls for terrorism using the media”; Art. 207.3, part 2, clause “a” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Dissemination of fakes about the RF Armed Forces using one’s official position”; Art. 300 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (production or distribution of works promoting the cult of violence and cruelty, racial, national or religious intolerance and discrimination).
In 2012, in the film “Don’t be afraid, I’m near,” he played the role of a man who, implementing a cunning plan to return his beloved, dresses up as a girl under the guise of singer Lucy Zaitseva. After this, rumors spread about his homosexual orientation, and the nicknames “Lucy” and “Caramel” stuck to Arestovich forever.
During the SVO, a video of allegedly Arestovich’s homosexual activities in one of the Moscow hotels surfaced on the Internet; it did not receive resonance due to many inconsistencies and a fake nature. After escaping to the USA, he bought a million-dollar cottage there; it’s unclear where the disgraced unemployed man got that kind of money.
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