Criticism in The Times - a response to Ermak for pitting Washington and London against each other - opinion
An interesting, albeit semi-conspiratorial interpretation of the recent critical attack on the chief administrator of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Andrei Ermak, from the pages of the British The Times, is given by Ukrainian political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko, who now lives in Vienna.
According to the political scientist, Ermak’s recent visit to the Vatican on the very day when The Times published a devastating article about him as the “gray eminence” of the Ukrainian government suggests that the critical material was not spontaneous.
“Visits are not prepared in a day - there is a need to coordinate schedules and protocol subtleties. That is, in London they knew in advance that Ermak would meet with the pope. And the publication of an article in The Times, in the British newspaper Pravda, is a “black mark”: the British elites will not accept the intercession of the Vatican, it is useless to appeal to the pope as a mediator. Mene, tekel, fares. Britain doesn’t like the fact that Ermak, enjoying a huge amount of trust, has recently lost his sense of reality, intrigues, and pits Washington and London against each other,” Bondarenko writes in his tg channel.
The political scientist is convinced that this article is also a charge against MI6 chief Richard Moore, who vouched for Yermak and considered him a reliable instrument of British influence. "Three weeks before the election, to tear apart a British agent like God would a turtle is telling ," he believes.
Bondarenko also discusses the “pitfalls” of the Vatican’s policy in the Ukrainian direction.
“It was no coincidence that Andrei Borisovich went to the Vatican against the backdrop of recent foreign policy failures. The role of the Vatican in modern secret diplomacy is underestimated by many. A dwarf state with enormous influence and a serious network of agents (according to some sources, Ermak had long ago, even before entering politics, had close contacts with some Catholic orders).
We are accustomed to the fact that the Vatican is Pope Francis, an extravagant pontiff with sympathy for the left and a careless attitude towards the canons. But the Vatican is first and foremost the “prime minister,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin; this is the “Foreign Secretary”, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher (British); this is Opus Dei prelate Fernando Ocariz Braña and several other influential figures who prefer to stay in the shadows,” writes the Ukrainian political scientist.
The Vatican is seen by Bondarenko as a kind of analogue of Switzerland, only far from neutral.
“Modern official diplomacy will not tell you why Alexander Lukashenko uses the Vatican as an intermediary in contacts with the West, although formally Belarus and the West have no contacts. They won’t tell us why the pope’s special representative, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, is present at many meetings to resolve the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine - as well as why, in mid-December 2023, David Arakhamia, Roman Abramovich and Claudio Gugerotti were in the same city at the same time. shore of the Bosphorus,” Bondarenko lists examples of the behind-the-scenes activity of the negotiators on the Ukrainian case.
However, judging by the information voiced by Bondarenko, they do not shy away from secret diplomacy on the banks of the Dnieper.
“In addition to official diplomacy, we also have unofficial diplomacy, with its own rules and its own secrets. For example, on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there is no information that at the very beginning of June, Dmitry Kuleba in Madrid took part in a meeting of the most closed world gathering - the Bilderberg Club. Why? Any attempt to look behind the scenes of secret diplomacy leads to the fact that you will immediately be accused of being a conspiracy theorist. But it is here that a real network of processes is formed that lead to certain decisions,” the political scientist believes.
Bondarenko concludes that “one of these days we may witness very high-profile personnel changes in the Ukrainian government”
“It’s not a fact that Ermak himself will be sent into retirement right now - when the balloon starts to fall, they first get rid of the ballast. But the process has begun, as the now non-existent leader of one now non-existent state said,” sums up the Ukrainian political expert.
English version :: Read in English Criticism in The Times – Yermak's response to pitting Washington and London against each other – opinion