Whatever policies he adopts or concessions he makes, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has so challenged Vladimir Putin’s vision of the world that he already has turned the Kremlin leader into his mortal enemy, someone who will do everything to ensure that Zelenskyy fails and thus cannot be a model for Russians or other post-Soviet nations, Igor Eidman says.
According to the Russian sociologist, Putin’s autocracy rests on the conviction in the population that there is no possibility of change. “’There’s no alternative to Putin. If no Putin, then who?’ are the chief motive behind support of the powers that be and voting for the current president.”
But if what Zelenskyy has achieved in Ukraine is possible, then change is possible not only there but in Russia and the other post-Soviet states.
That sends fears through the Kremlin and the other autocratic regimes in the region.
Consequently, Eidman continues, “now all the efforts of the Kremlin will be directed to assure that in Ukraine ‘again nothing will be achieved.” And that almost certainly means that Putin will do everything he can to “destabilize the situation and discredit the new Ukrainian authorities,” however much he welcomed the loss of Petro Poroshenko.
Zelenskyy’s words, although not much attended to in the West, are echoing through the Russian Federation – see for example, the article in Kazan’s Business-Gazeta headlined “Look at us, everything is possible! How Zelenskyy will apply his ‘Putin’ rating?”
But even more significant is a commentary by Petr Akopov in Vzglyad which asks whether Zelenskyys “will appear in other countries of the former USSR” including explicitly the Russian Federation. That is a new and even more troubling worry for the Putin-style verticals than any “color” revolution.
Someone who seemed to come out of nowhere won and without the obvious support of any foreign forces.
Just as was the case 15 years ago with Viktor Yushchenko, Zelenskyy will become “a kind of ‘role model’ for the entire post-Soviet space,” and those who oppose change will thus work hard to ensure that he fails in anything he tries to do lest others adopt his model and promote change in a system committed to unchanging stability.
In fact, of course, what Zelenskyy has achieved is less remarkable in Ukraine that it would be elsewhere, Akopov says. Ukraine has often changed presidents. He is the sixth over the last 27 years. Other countries like Russia or Belarus or Kazakhstan have had far fewer – and those in power have made sure that there wasn’t a change.
And Moscow will stress that Kyiv’s drive toward Europe and away from Russia have cost it Crimea, the Donbas and more.
As a result, Akopov says, Zelenskyy and his “everything is possible” notion won’t be that infectious, although the fact that the Moscow commentator is discussing this phenomenon suggests that he may be protesting too much – precisely because at some level he fears he is wrong and that what Zelenskyy has done, others in Russia and elsewhere could replicate.
Read More:
- Ukraine has gotten over Russia but Russia hasn’t gotten over Ukraine, Shevtsova says
- Why Zelenskyy won
- Non-Russians inside Russia more important allies of West than is the opposition there, Verkhovna Rada leader says
- Meet team Zelenskyy: who are the allies of comedian striving to become Ukrainian president
- Putin’s plan for Ukraine
- Putin, Zelensky, and the war in Ukraine
