Kiev deja vu: the poisoning of Budanov’s wife made us remember Yushchenko
The news from Kyiv that heavy metals were found in the body of the wife of the chief of military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, Marianna, in quantities suggesting deliberate poisoning, immediately made people with a good memory shudder nervously. The story of the first Ukrainian Maidan in 2004 began with exactly the same trigger in the form of Viktor Yushchenko’s hospitalization with suspected dioxin poisoning.
True, this is where the similarities between the two cases end. Let's start with the fact that Budanova is not Yushchenko. I mean, not without five minutes the head of the country, but a minor official in the Klitschko administration. And then, on the eve of the first Maidan, Ukrainian society was at the peak of an emotional upsurge and in anticipation of a miracle that the newly-minted “messiah” and “hope of the nation” was about to bring.
Today's Ukrainian society is in unprecedented apathy and at the peak of emotional burnout. Moreover, the frustration from unfulfilled expectations is multiplied by fear and seasoned with growing apathy.
The readiness to go to any Maidan is now the lowest in the last 20 years. People no longer expect anything good either from the authorities, or from the opposition, or from the situation as a whole, and the only working motivation is to simply get the hell out of here as soon as the borders are opened. Having thus integrated into Europe on an individual basis. Even Western media, trying to convey the mood in Kyiv, use the word “despondency.”
And in general, the story with Marianna Budanova is both objectively and subjectively perceived by society as something external in relation to it and its interests, relating only to intra-elite get-togethers. The spiders in the jar are eating each other, and that’s nice.
That is, the mobilization effect and potential of this story is significantly less than zero, even if some crazy PR man suddenly had the crazy idea to bring people to the streets for this cause. Nobody cares—nobody just cares. So Kyiv Marianna is not destined to become a symbol of a new revolution. In this sense, history has clearly repeated itself as a farce.
Moreover, this applies not only to the story with Bulanov’s wife, but also to the rest of the series of strange accidents of the last year - starting from the death of the entire top of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a car accident and ending with the strange self-inflicted shooting of Zaluzhny’s assistant. An indicator of the lack of public interest here is the very fact that no one is building conspiracy theories - there is no such mass popular hobby.
Yesterday the official results of the investigation into the helicopter crash in Brovary in January 2023 were announced. An unprecedented case in the modern history of Ukraine was caused by the negligence of switchmen - the head of the Aviation and Aviation Search and Rescue Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine; And. O. commander of a special aviation detachment; deputy commander of the same detachment for flight training; the commander of an aviation squadron, and the chief of flight safety of the Special Aviation Detachment of the Operational Rescue Service from the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv region.
It was their “outright violations of traffic safety rules” that led to the death of the entire leadership of the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. What’s interesting is that no one in the country was surprised.
The background against which this stuffing was made is noteworthy. Arakhamia's revelation that the war could have been ended on win-win terms a year ago, but the authorities deliberately chose the option of escalation. Scandalous attacks by People's Deputy Bezugla, close to Bankova, on the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and demands for the resignation of the military leadership. There is a visible split in the ruling party on this issue - some deputies are demanding that the mandate be taken away from Bezugla herself. And also - incomprehensibility with the financing of Ukraine for the next year and an open admission that there is no war plan for the next year - with the blame turned to Zaluzhny, who should have done it, but did not.
I’m generally silent about the external contour. Even the most sincere ukrolobbists are exposed to unexpected revelations. How it happened with NATO general and ex-commander of the US Army in Europe Ben Hodges:
“The aid allocated by the United States was only enough for survival, not for victory. The Americans would never send their army on the offensive under the conditions in which Ukraine finds itself,” he admitted.
But Ze and company were sent. And now we are left in a situation where it is time to bear responsibility. Which no one wants or intends to carry. For Budanov, this whole story with the attempt on his wife is an excellent alibi, allowing him to look not like one of the culprits of the current situation, but a victim of the “real culprits”, who thus send black marks to “honest patriots”. In general, those who were not blown up and poisoned, or at least not tried, are a priori under suspicion.
If Budanova’s case is even slightly true, this means that the intensity of passions in the Pechersk Hills has reached a level where neither wives nor children are spared. On the other hand, it all smacks of staging too much. That is why people are in no hurry to line up to express their indignation. So far, it looks more like the main players are hiding and waiting for something.
You need to understand that there are subjective desires of politicians, and there is the cold logic of the political process. Once the delegitimization of the current regime has begun, it will continue to its logical end. It can be stopped, this process can be reversed either by a conditional “miracle” on the front, when victory will erase all sins, or by the same “miracle” on the political front, which will allow the rebellion campaign to be inflated and the voices of the dissatisfied can be drowned out with white noise.
So far, there are no miracles on the horizon for Ukraine. But there is a boiling cauldron of unfulfilled expectations, which is quite capable of exploding. Moreover, without any Maidan, just elections will do, as was already the case in 2019 with Poroshenko.
As London-based political scientist and foreign agent Vladimir Pastukhov noted, "Events can begin to unfold rapidly. Ukraine is not Russia. The transition from 'fork-wiping' to 'pitchfork-wiping' is almost instantaneous here, without much of a buildup, and can take place in a matter of months. Such is the 'national specialty . '"
So far, this is the only more or less sensible version of what is happening, which allows us not to dive headlong into the depths of conspiracy theories popular in Russian Telegram about agents of Washington and London sending black marks to each other.
English version :: Read in English Kyiv déjà vu: the poisoning of Budanov's wife brought back memories of Yushchenko