Zelenskiy campaign details more plans, finds wiretaps

Presidential front-runner Volodymyr Zelenskiy released
more details of his plans if he’s elected president in a television broadcast
on Mar. 1. He said he would work to stop the killings in the war in Donbas
immediately and renew negotiations outside the formats of the Trilateral
Contact Group in Minsk and the Normandy Four, which are no longer effective.
Instead, he called for talks to occur in the Budapest Memorandum format
involving Russian, American and British diplomats. On his campaign’s Facebook
page on March 3, Zelenskiy said he is also drafting a new law on illegal
enrichment that will fully meet Western requirements, vowing that one
presidential candidate in particular will go to prison. He was likely referring
to President Poroshenko.

The interview was broadcast on the 1+1 television
network, which also broadcast his “Servant of the People” series that cast him
in the role of an honest history teacher who unexpectedly becomes president.
The 1+1 network is controlled by Igor Kolomoisky, with whom Zelenskiy was shown
to have indirect business ties related to the distribution of his entertainment programs.
The same broadcast also featured presidential contender Yulia Tymoshenko, who
has often appeared on the 1+1 network too. In a BBC news report broadcast on
Mar. 4, Zelenskiy denied being Kolomoisky’s “puppet.” In his turn, Kolomoisky
said his support for Zelenskiy isn’t motivated by revenge against President
Poroshenko. “For me, Zelenskiy is not a personality. He is a certain symbol. A
symbol of a change in generations. Ukraine needs not one Zelenskiy, but
millions of Zelenskiys,” the oligarch said.

The National Police confirmed on Mar. 4 that it found
elements of wiretap devices at a building neighboring the headquarters of the
Zelenskiy campaign earlier that day. Campaign employees found a box with wires
in a corridor and informed police. When they arrived, a security guard said he
saw unknown individuals install the apparatus. “This device can’t be acquired
on the Internet at a bazaar. It is sold only to those who engage in
investigative activities that have a license issued by the Security Service of
Ukraine,” said MP Anton Gerashchenko on his pravda.com.ua blog, where he often
reveals confidential information from law enforcement sources. In response, the
SBU – already alleged to be fulfilling the orders of the Poroshenko campaign –
released a statement acknowledging that it owns the devices but denied using
them to spy on the Zelenskiy campaign.

Zenon Zawada: Zelenskiy
is continuing to pursue his campaign strategy of targeting the president for
criticism and merely playing off his scandals and mistakes, which are surfacing
on a daily basis. The strategy is working brilliantly so far. At the same time,
he is continuing to keep his election promises to a minimum, merely declaring
positions that are universally appealing and reasonable to fulfill. (However,
promising to put Poroshenko in prison is either an empty populist slogan thrown
to the public, or Kolomoisky’s plans for revenge against his rival.)

As for the wiretapping, this is another example of
the president’s opponents playing the role of being politically persecuted to
their advantage, regardless of the verity of the claims. We believe it’s
possible the president’s campaign had employed SBU agents to wiretap the
Zelenskiy campaign headquarters. Moreover, evidence continues to surface of the
president using his control of the SBU to intimidate campaign opponents. But playing the role of the persecuted underdog
has always been an effective strategy in Ukrainian elections.