29 March 2024, Friday, 16:12
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

Wolves live as outlaws. How Yanukovych lost Ukraine

3
Wolves live as outlaws. How Yanukovych lost Ukraine
MICHAŁ POTOCKI (LEFT), ZBIGNIEW PARAFIANOWICZ

On June 25 a presentation of the book of Polish journalists Michał Potocki and Zbigniew Parafianowicz was held in Warsaw. “Wolves live as outlaws. How Yanukovych lost Ukraine.”

The event was held in an art-café called Południk Zero, and it was organised by Czarne publishing house, which had published the book, a reporter of charter97.org informs.

Opening the presentation, the host Maria Przełomiec, a journalist of the Polish TV, noted a high expert level of the book’s authors: the forecasts of the development of events in Ukraine by Michał Potocki and Zbigniew Parafianowicz in 2014, scored 86%, as said by her.

The authors of the book stressed that it was their conscious intention to address the personality of the fugitive ex-president of Ukraine, whose actions had provoked Maidan to a great extent, and not the reconstruction of such events as Maidan and the Revolution of Dignity. According to the Polish journalists, Viktor Yanukovych liked to use criminal slang and analogous methods in politics, and observing the criminal logics of his regime, it is easier to understand why it collapsed so quickly. The principle “to cheat an easy game”, thanks to which he acquired the power, finally resulted in his defeat.

Analyzing the denial of Yanukovych to sign the EU association agreement in November 2013, Zbigniew Parafianowicz underlined that since that moment the tactics of the Ukrainian president to cheat his partners failed fatally: “Yanukovych could have signed that agreement, and then cause its ratification’s delay, or even fail to abide by the terms of agreement, as he was used to do. And in the election in 2015 he could sidestep rivals easily and take the office of the president. To his traditional electoral support in eastern Ukraine he could have added several per cents of votes in Western regions, saying that Yushchenko and Tymoshenko just talked about European integration, while he had done that. Those experts are right, who believe that Yanukovych had been simply frightened by Russia’s blackmailing, as in Sochi Vladimir Putin most likely threatened with the consequences of the association with Europe – an economic war, and possibly, even an Anschluss of the Crimea. One of the workers of the Administration of the former president of Ukraine told that when after that meeting Yanukovych left, he was extremely scared.”

Giving estimation of the present situation in Ukraine against the background of the Russian aggression, Michał Potocki has made the following prediction: “The situation in Ukraine is unlikely to improve, and Russia will try to provoke a social unrest, and also keep the conflict in Donbas in a “half-frozen” state. In addition to the above, the periods of the “cold” and “hot” war are to interchange.”

Commenting on the statement of Yanukovych about his desire to return to Ukraine, made by him in an interview to BBC, Michał Potocki noted: “The scenario of setting up a pro-Russian government in Kyiv is impossible now, and Viktor Yanukovych is not needed either by Ukraine or even by the so-called “people’s republics”. He should set himself up for being a pensioner in Russia.”

Answering the request of guests from Belarus to compare the political regimes of Viktor Yanukovych and Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Michał Potocki observed that the Belarusian dictator can better manipulate the political and informational space: “Yanukovych’s regime was openly corrupt and aimed at wealth accumulation by his family. Lukashenka feels the essence of the authoritarian power more subtly. He guesses more clearly what should be done to stay in power. Because of that better understanding of the authoritarian regime’s principles, Lukashenka would be able to stay much longer than Yanukovych. I think that some kind of “a palace coup” is more likely as a scenario of change of power in Belarus. However, to my mind, it would not be possible in the near future.”

To the question about the change in attitude of European bureaucrats towards the Belarusian dictator, who has tried the mask of a “peacemaker” in the context of the war in Ukraine, Michał Potocki assured that the policy of the new president of Poland Andrzej Duda is to remain hard-line and principled: “Exactly in the period of the government of the Right and Justice party the line aimed at human rights defence in Belarus was the firmest and the most consistent one.”

Write your comment 3

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts