Pro-Russian Murayev joins forces with Vilkul

Yevgeny Murayev, the leader of the pro-Russian Nashi
party, announced on March 8 that he has plans to merge his political force with
the Opposition Bloc for Peace and Development, led by Oleksandr Vilkul. As part
of their merger plans, Murayev also announced he is withdrawing his
presidential candidacy to support Vilkul’s campaign.

Murayev had been aligned with Kyiv media mogul Vadim
Rabinovych before parting ways in late September when Rabinovych announced his
political alliance with natural gas trader Yuriy Boyko and Putin ally Viktor
Medvedchuk, who created the Opposition Platform For Life party. Within days of
the split, Murayev announced the launch of the Nashi party, which had the most
pro-Russian rhetoric on Ukraine’s political landscape but has been widely
suspected of being tied to the Presidential Administration.

Zenon Zawada: Ukraine’s
Russian-oriented forces have long accepted that they can’t compete for the
presidency, so they are already preparing for the October parliamentary vote.
So far, Boyko has enjoted the advantage in the polls both in the presidential
elections, and the parliamentary. However, Murayev’s alliance with Vilkul is a
game-changer that evenly splits Ukraine’s Russian-oriented forces between
Vilkul’s Opposition Bloc (sponsored by Rinat Akhmetov) and Boyko’s Opposition
Platform (sponsored by Dmytro Firtash).

With these parties still unable distinguish
themselves from each other, this split will hurt their chances to bring a
powerful Russian-oriented force to parliament. Moreover, if Volodymyr Zelenskiy
becomes president and enjoys success in his first few months, he stands to keep
much of the traditionally Russian-oriented electorate in the southeastern
regions that the Russian-oriented forces have allowed to slip from them owing
to their lack of unity.