Parliamentary faction leaders ignore Zelenskiy meeting

Four heads of the six current parliamentary factions
ignored a May 4 meeting in the Rada building requested by President-elect Volodymyr
Zelenskiy. Those who decided to attend were Vadym Novinsky, the co-head of the
Opposition Bloc (that is Russian-oriented), and Oleh Bereziuk, the head of the
Self-Reliance faction (pro-Western). Also attending were Parliamentary Speaker
Andriy Parubiy (People’s Front party), First Deputy Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko
(Poroshenko Bloc), and Deputy Speaker Oksana Syroyid. Reprensentatives of the
Poroshenko Bloc, People’s Front party and Fatherland party were also in
attendance.

Zelenskiy attended the meeting accompanied by his
lawyer, Andriy Bohdan, who is also the lead counsel for Ihor Kolomoisky, the
oligarch who is believed to sponsor Zelenskiy election campaign. Zelenskiy was
also accompanied by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who was identified by the pravda.com.ua
news site as Zelenskiy’s media consultant for social and political ads. Also
accompanying Zelenskiy was Serhiy Shefir, who is identified by the bihus.info
website as a business partner who handles financial issues in his film
business.

Zelenskiy’s election campaign consisted of four groups
of influence, according to a text message sent in February by Oleksandr
Korniyenko, the election campaign coordinator, that was obtained by the
bihus.info news site. The first group, “Kvartal,” consists of Zelenskiy’s
partners in his entertainment business, including the Shefir brothers,
according to the report broadcast on Apr. 19. The “Diadia” group was identified
as the duo of Bohdan and Tymoshenko. The “Nyzhniy” group consists of
Zelenskiy’s legal team led by lawyer Serhiy Nyzhniy, while the “Regions” group
consists of his political team, including Korniyenko and consultant Dmytro
Razumkov. The text message was sent by Korniyenko to Serhiy Trofimov, an
executive producer for Zelenskiy.

Zenon Zawada: It’s clear
that the Ukrainian establishment will be acting against Zelenskiy from the day
he takes office, essentially seeking his failure. This is why it’s all the more
important that Zelenskiy dismiss parliament as soon as he can and call early
elections. This would not only bring the elections closer by at least two
months, but give Zelenskiy the upperhand in creating the media narratives
surrounding the elections. Without a powerful faction in parliament, it’s very
likely that Zelenskiy will either become dependent on Ukraine’s pro-Western
forces (which will seek to restrict his authority as much as possible) or
capitulate before Russia.

The current trends indicate that Zelenskiy’s
political team in the Presidential Administration will consist of a mix between
his trusted business associates, as well as respected reformers. If that is the
case, a big question will be whether the various factions will be able to
cooperate with each other, or whether business interests will overtake the
reforms agenda, as President Poroshenko was widely accused of allowing to have
occurred.