SERBIAN EXPERT ON THE MAIDAN ERA, ZELENSKY’S LEADERSHIP AND DONBASS PROSPECTS

Dragana Trifkovic for NEWS-FRONT

The Ukrainian oligarchic system was so intertwined with politics that even the intervention of the West, which it identified five years ago, could not remedy the situation, told the director of the Serbian Center for Geostrategic Expertise Dragana Trifkovic in an exclusive commentary to News Front.

“Unfortunately, Ukraine is in the process of disintegration, and the whole system depends on the oligarchs who finance the policy. They are not guided by the interests of the people, but by personal success. In such conditions, it is almost impossible to stop the connection of politics with crime and fight corruption, which causes great damage, ”she said, noting that even the West, interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine, “was unable to solve the problems” and only “aggravated the situation, pushing country to the abyss”.

It was against this background of the dirty tangles of the oligarchy and politics that Vladimir Zelensky was able to stand out, who became the leader of the presidential race in the first round of elections. His “trump card” was precisely the fact that he has no political experience at all, Trifkovic notes: “Zelensky’s victory shows that the country needs new faces in politics and that the people are tired of voting for the leaders who have spent their resources.”

At the same time, she recommends that Ukrainians “be very careful and follow the actions” of the latter-day politician. The situation in which the current president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, turned out to be explained by the disillusionment of the population, asserting that no one who voted for Yulia Tymoshenko in the first round would give a vote for the current guarantor.

Nonetheless, Poroshenko’s position could have been better if he had not lost the support of US President Donald Trump: “For example, the incident in the Kerch Strait took place with the support of the democratic structures of the USA than Poroshenko made an unreliable partner. This case may affect his political career. ”

Arguing about the prospects for improving relations between Kiev and Moscow, Trifkovic noted that Zelensky could be tougher than his predecessor: “Poroshenko is a typical example of a radical who used the conflict with Russia as his political agenda. Restrained and modern Zelensky can be more dangerous than him, in the sense that he can achieve a negative effect in Russian-Ukrainian relations through decent, acceptable formulations. ”

When asked about the role of the change of power in Kiev for the republics of Donbass, Trifkovic answered that this situation can hardly change: “Whoever takes the presidency, will not change the rhetoric and will talk about the need to return the DPR and the LPR to Ukraine. But no one thinks seriously about this. This would change the attitude of political forces towards the pro-Russian, that no one needs. And in a military sense, it is obvious that they can do nothing except provocations and periodic shelling of the territories of the DPR and the LPR. ”

2. April 2019.

NEWS-FRONT