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influenced by pro-Russian narratives that the West and George Soros are intent on destroying Ukraine, and that Zelenskiy started strong but couldn’t deal with the competing interests, the crisis, and the hard policy choices.
No match for the system: It’s impossible to change Ukraine. Everything is for sale, including parliamentarians. Name your price, and one can adopt a baby during COVID-19, illegally air-freight hundreds of dogs from a puppy mill to Canada, and do just about anything else. Oligarchs appear to have recovered their control over the parliament for a pittance, and all along they controlled the media and all the major industries. As the ruling oligarchs claim in Zelenskiy’s fictional hit series: “This bunch was much more affordable than the last one.” Until the role of money in Ukraine’s politics changes, it doesn’t matter who’s president. Ukraine’s modern history makes it impossible to summarily dismiss this theory.
One thing is clear: the show will go on in Ukraine, but whether Zelenskiy will be the starring act is another matter. Instead, in Kyiv, it increasingly looks like back to the future.
2.2 Reforms stall as Zelenskiy actively undermines the NBU independence
Confidence in the Z-Dream of rapid, deep and far-reaching reforms by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that will transform Ukraine have almost totally evaporated this week following the unexpected resignation of governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Yakiv Smolii. And now the bad news is quickly gathering momentum.
“News flow in Ukraine over the past 24h has turned decidedly negative. Indeed, I think it’s now fair to ask the question whether hopes of economic reform under President Zelenskiy are completely and utterly dead as he seems
7 UKRAINE Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com
