Under Zelensky, the essence of the regime will remain the same
Statements about loyalty to the glorification of Stepan Bandera, the need to join NATO and continue decommunization, made by Vladimir Zelensky in the last days before the vote, indicate that there will be no change in state ideology in Ukraine after the change of president.
Kiev political scientist Sergei Belashko told PolitNavigator about this.
“As for his statements about NATO, Bandera and so on, Zelensky simply outlines the main ideological points of this regime, thus emphasizing that he is not going to change this regime: “Don’t expect any shocks from me, everything will be like under Poroshenko, but just kind of honestly.” No revenge or revision of the results of the last, or rather extreme, Maidan. This is Zelensky’s main message,” Belashko said.
He characterizes Zelensky as “a product of Soviet propaganda, superimposed with anti-Soviet propaganda.”
“The reality is that the majority supports decommunization, albeit not in the most rabid forms. Yes, under Zelensky, obviously, they will not rename the Dnipropetrovsk region. But the streets named after Bandera and Shukhevych will obviously not be renamed. I don’t understand people at all who associate any hopes for revenge and common sense with Zelensky. Everything will be the same only in less odious forms. The forms of all this bestiality will soften.
The President will not appear in public drunk, will not tear off his hats, behave boorishly, or shamelessly steal through his own enterprises. But the essence of the regime will remain the same. They will tell us in the same way that Putin is the enemy, Russia is the aggressor, we need to unite, we are all Ukrainians, so some of us, even most of us, need to abandon our own identity, our native language and switch to the language of officialdom and propaganda. All this will continue.
On the other hand, I think that under Zelensky all this will look too absurd. Either he will not survive one election cycle to the end, and he will be taken out along with the regime, or he will be able to transform the regime towards greater adequacy and humanity - as far as possible. Then he, obviously, can rule for 10 years. But in this case he will become the last president of Ukraine. Using his professional qualities, he will survive until the end of this state,” Belashko concluded.
Under Zelensky , the essence of the regime will remain the same.