Key finance official defends Zelenskiy’s qualifications as president

Former Finance Minister Alex Danylyuk appeared on a
television political talk show on Apr. 1 to defend the qualifications of presidential
front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whom he is serving as an adviser. Zelenskiy
is ready to conduct meetings with the world’s leaders, Danylyuk said, stressing
that even experienced politicians have to prepare for such meetings. He asked
voters to consider the team that Zelenskiy will be forming in the coming weeks,
which will be preparing him for such talks. “Zelenskiy is not saying that he’s
an expert in all matters,” Danylyuk said. But he’s saying that he will bring
together a strong team, the strongest team, and will listen and cooperate with
this team.”

Danylyuk served as finance minister between April 2016
and June 2018, having worked to secure IMF tranches and earning a strong
reputation among Western creditors. He also was involved in the government’s
efforts to nationalize Privatbank, which had been Ukraine’s leading commercial
bank at the time, controlled by Igor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov.

In his turn, Artur Herasymov, the head of the
Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction, called for unity to not allow the
“fulfillment of the Kremlin’s plans” and stressing that reforms can’t occur “if
there’s not a country left,” repeating a key strategy of the president’s
campaign of raising fear about Ukraine’s disintegration. He asked repeatedly
whether Zelenskiy would participate in a debate with Poroshenko. Danylyuk
pointed out that Zelenskiy has already said he is willing to participate in a
debate, but added that he believes they are capable of creating the same kind
of “film” for the president, that doesn’t conform to reality, that Zelenskiy
has created for himself.

Zenon Zawada: This debate
between key advisors of the presidential candidates encompassed the main points
that they will be arguing for the next three weeks leading up to the runoff
vote. As the key issue, the Poroshenko campaign will allege Zelenskiy is
incompetent to become president, while the Zelenskiy campaign will produce an
impressive team of advisers that it will assert will work closely with the
neophyte.

Certainly, Zelenskiy scored a victory on this front in
recruiting Danylyuk, who is well respected by the financial community, both in
Ukraine and abroad. He also was directly involved in the nationalization of
Privatbank, which is aimed as dispelling the Poroshenko campaign’s claims that
Zelenskiy will merely serve as a puppet for the interests of oligarch
Kolomoisky (who has backed the Zelenskiy campaign in several ways, including
broadcasting “The Servant of the People” series on his 1+1 television network.)

We can expect Zelenskiy to recruit more advisers who
are respected in their fields, which we expect will be an effective tactic to
convince voters that they won’t be risking the country’s stability by voting
for him. On the other hand, the president’s team will work to convince the
public that a team of advisers will be inadequate when it comes time for
Zelenskiy to sit across a table from Russian President Putin, or deal with him
in telephone calls.

It’s also worth noting that Herasymov’s otherwise
serious arguments drew laughter from the audience a few times during the show.
To us, this further confirms the Poroshenko administration has lost the trust
of a large segment of the public, even on matters as serious as defending the
country against Russian aggression. Its corruption scandals, particularly those
that involve the military, and its unwillingness to engage in structural
reforms has prompted many citizens to not take seriously its arguments of
“losing the country to Russia.” Though the president’s campaign has a little
less than three weeks to change that view.