Bohdan acknowledges ties to Yanukovych officials, proposes regional status for Russian

Presidential Office Head Andriy Bohdan acknowledged in
an interview published on July 1 that he has long been part of the Ukrainian
political establishment having worked as a lawyer, stating that “80% of the
current political class are my former clients.” Among them is his “longtime
friend” Andriy Portnov, who was promoted to first deputy head of the
administration of former President Viktor Yanukovych during the peak of the
EuroMaidan protests in January 2014. Portnov will not be appointed to any
position by the president, he said in the interview published on the rbc.ua
news site. Bohdan denied having any direct business ties to another friend,
real estate developer Andriy Vavrysh, who has nonetheless submitted plans to
renovate a central Kyiv building to house the Presidential Office after it
moves from its traditional location on Bankova Street.

The Zelensky administration would consider organizing
a nationwide referendum on a peace agreement with Donbas, Bohdan said in the
interview. Among the issues that could be voted on is granting the Russian
language regional status in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (collectively known
as “Donbas”), he said. When asked whether that will prompt cities such as
Kharkiv and Odesa to demand regional status for Russian, Bohdan avoided the
question and stated it will be justified in Donetsk and Luhansk if it prevents
“another 15,000 citizens” to be killed in warfare.

In the interview, Bohdan said he doesn’t plan to serve
as prime minister. Instead the Zelensky administration will consider “some kind
of nominee for the Nobel Prize in economics.” The administration has already
hired human resources firms to work on its Cabinet nominees, he said. “They are
selecting clean people, who are understandable for Europe, preferably with
experience in civil service,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: Bohdan’s
comments in this interview were revealing for several reasons. Rather than
distancing himself from one of former President Yanukovych’s closest officials,
Bohdan identifies Portnov as his “longtime friend.” To us, this is the latest
signal from Zelensky’s entourage that anyone affiliated with the Yanukovych
administration will be treated differently, respected, and even hired to serve
in certain posts. It’s worth considering that they will have scores of posts to
fill without enough experienced candidates. And turning to those with ties to
the defunct Party of Regions is preferable than those affiliated with the
Poroshenko administration, with which the Zelensky administration wants no ties
at all. This tendency has already been demonstrated, with the Zelensky
nominating at least one Yanukovych-era official to serve
in the Security Service of Ukraine. And Portnov would have returned as a
professor to one of Kyiv’s leading universities had protests not erupted.

Regarding Bohdan’s Donbas peace proposal, it’s
apparent the Zelensky administration is still choosing to play with fire by
suggesting referenda to decide critical geopolitical issues. This is a reckless
proposal, as with Zelensky’s reckless suggestion to make decisions on EU and
NATO membership subject to referenda. Just as Russia’s return to the activity
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was suggested to
be a Pandora’s Box by Ukrainian diplomat Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, the
introduction of Russian as a regional language is a Pandora’s Box will
certainly be exploited by the Kremlin to promote similar measures in other
Russophone regions, particularly Kharkiv and Odesa. That Bohdan is considering
this initiative is a sign that the Zelensky administration will go to great
lengths to achieve peace in Donbas.