Since the start of the 2019 presidential election campaign and to this day, President Volodymyr Zelensky has not spoken about anyone so harshly and accusingly as about his main political opponent, Petro Poroshenko.
Even with Vladimir Putin, the president of the aggressor country, Zelensky did not deny the opportunity to “look in the eyes” and seek a compromise while Poroshenko and his supporters were given only negative connotations.
The policy of Zelensky and his entire team is too dependent on the personal attitudes of the leader. He has repeatedly stated that he reacts quite painfully to criticism and for the same reason does not read social media. At the same time, in his interviews, Zelensky makes it clear that he dismissed most of the former members of his team, such as Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and presidential chief of staff Andriy Bohdan, precisely because of the personal “motivation.” The fatal decision leading to the firing of Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka was his reluctance to sign the legal notice of suspicion to Poroshenko.
Zelensky’s open hostility to Poroshenko has too many reasons. One of the main ones is, of course, the lack of a culture of analytical expertise in the President’s Office. Zelensky is indeed in the information bubble that openly demonized Poroshenko before the election and continues to do so now.
According to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, more than 20 legal cases have been filed against Poroshenko so far. None of these cases concerns the “large-scale corruption” allegedly committed by Poroshenko. During the 2019 election campaign, the main tool of Zelensky was criticism of the allegedly “corrupt” component of the previous president’s activities.
Meanwhile, Poroshenko is accused of almost every decision made by him. For example, the latest known case against him concerns “incitement of inter-religious hatred” through the receipt of the Tomos and the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Absolutely absurd and “expired” cases are being found “in the closet,” such as the case of Poroshenko’s private collection of paintings, which the State Investigative Service decided to check for concealment from customs control during their import to Ukraine. It is important to remember that the collection was formed before Poroshenko became president, and all relevant documents on the payment of duties and taxes are available and have never been hidden.
As a result, from the beginning, absurd accusations are accompanied by no less absurd and, most importantly, illegal actions of law enforcement agencies. The latest egregious cases of law enforcement officers’ arbitrariness were an unauthorized “assault” on the museum, which exhibited paintings from the same collection, as well as summons for questioning on his son’s birthday and to court on the day of Poroshenko’s father’s funeral. Obviously, such actions can only be seen as political persecution and a violation of the fundamental principles of the rule of law and even common sense. As Poroshenko himself said in an interview with Fareed Zakaria, this is “an attempt to use the state machine against a political opponent.”
Understanding the political motivation of the cases, during the court hearings on June 18, thousands of concerned citizens came out in support of Poroshenko. The U.S. Embassy, the British ambassador to Ukraine, the Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America, and other international partners of Ukraine also expressed their support for impartial and independent justice. This level of support forced Zelensky and the security forces to slow down. Although it seemed that prosecutors were ready to demand arrest during the court hearing on June 18, the case was postponed to early July, and prosecutors are only asking for a personal commitment.
However, a new round of politically motivated persecution is inevitable. In a recent interview with The Globe and Mail, Zelensky said of Poroshenko: “He wants to be a victim, he wants everyone to believe that there is political persecution in Ukraine. Most people in Ukraine understand that all this is like a political theater.”
Unfortunately, Zelensky continues to be unaware of the real consequences of his actions. Ukraine has already gone through a phase of political repression against the opposition under Yanukovych. In addition, such practices are common for authoritarian Eastern European leaders such as Putin and Lukashenko. It doesn’t end well, after all. Neither for the international image of the country nor for domestic political stability. Instead, it puts an end to democracy and Euro-Atlantic integration.
Zelensky is still in the state of a newcomer drifting to authoritarianism, for whom simple decisions and personal reckoning still take precedence over building working institutions. However, without justice, none of the systems will be effective, especially a democratic one.
Whether political persecution against Poroshenko and other opposition figures will continue will be a litmus test of the path chosen by Zelensky. He either falls into the category of another dangerous dictator of a third world country, or he becomes the leader of a democratic civilized state, where the rule of law is a priority, and politically motivated legal cases are impossible.
As long as the opposition does not feel safe, no government can feel safe either. This is how democracy works. Ukrainians have already proved that they are not going to put up with the dictatorship and are ready to defend their own freedom. Zelensky, please note.
Oleksiy Goncharenko is a Ukrainian lawmaker with the 27-member European Solidarity party.
