Zelenskyy shares how Russia attempted his political elimination

SUNDAY, 27 MARCH 2022, 20:24

The President of Ukraine,Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has spoken with Russian journalists about Russia's plan for his "political elimination"

Source: Zelenskyy's interview with the Russian press. 

Quote: "I have heard a lot of rumours about how my elimination was being planned... There have probably been several attempts, and by different people.

I feel pretty calm about this. Some of these people had already been dispatched, the political ones...If we are talking about my political elimination, that was the party around Medvedchuk - himself a "cousin" (godfather to Putin’s daughter - ed.) to the current Russian leader. 

They were finding political means of disruption. There was so much propaganda during the local elections. Weakening governance at local level. But those actions  turned out to be one of the main main reasons why after my election victory, our party also secured a stable majority in parliament. 

Generally, they understood that Russian authorities were losing their strong - I would say strong enough - influence on Ukrainian politics. Their influence was strong enough. Now they have chosen a different tactic - a tactic based on winning over the individual regions."

Details: Zelenskyy explained that the government of the Russian Federation have chosen this tactic, because they have understood that it is possible to win the presidential elections and in a democratic sense to control the central government but not to decide anything on a local level.

Quote: "Generally speaking that was always their (the pro-Russian lobby's) strategy - to rise from local councils to local elections and then enter parliament.  And in general it worked - they got re-elected to parliament over and over again. They really wanted to get in… There were even coalitions between left and right candidates - and even a centrist coalition. And all of this was done to disrupt the manageability of the process. 

Because when there is overall instability in the country - an unstable economy, everything falling apart, chaos in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament)... In general, all this destabilisation was needed just so that, having power on the regional governance level, they could then split the single majority. 

Chaos in the economy and political instability in Ukraine would still have led to an escalation by the Russian Federation - even before the current Russian president’s rule. It is just that they could have occupied our country much faster in the past. That was definitely part of the plan then. I am saying this not on the basis of foreign intelligence, but primarily our own intelligence. 

This destabilisation has not gone away. (...)

And when they saw that it is not all turning out, naturally, [they came up with] a parallel solution - to do as much as possible to neutralise those who are stabilising the situation in government. And when there is a war and martial law - who can guarantee that stability? Only the president - because it is martial law. By virtue of his powers under the current legislation of independent Ukraine."