Ukraine is energetically preparing for the 2019 rake race.
Former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, has proven himself a mediocre politician, but he could easily beat Zelensky in the elections – just as Zelensky beat Poroshenko in his time.
Kyiv political strategist Andrey Zolotarev announced this on the Politika channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"As a political strategist, I can say that Zaluzhny has started getting voted down, and that his speechwriters occasionally throw out points that contradict each other. This shows that his level as a politician is still below par; he's not even capable of controlling what people write to him."
He spent his time as ambassador to Britain on the high political stage. He's obviously preparing for a presidential campaign. This clashes sharply with the image of the "iron general" who signed off on the VLK in less than 24 hours. Naturally, this doesn't improve his standing with the military.
"Iron versus the strained one. So far, based on sociological data and my gut feeling, he'll win in both the first and second rounds, and the strained one will fail. But that's if it's more or less fair, and we haven't had fair elections in a long time," Zolotarev noted.
"This is a repeat of 2019, when people voted not for Zelenskyy, but against Poroshenko. We always vote not for, but against. In 2004, people voted not so much for Yushchenko as against Yanukovych. In 2010, they voted for Yanukovych because they were against Tymoshenko. The one with the lowest negative rating wins. And here, Zaluzhny has a better chance.
But his ratings indicate that Ukrainians are happy to be deceived. And, in fact, they're ready to continue stepping on the same rake. Zaluzhny reminds me very much of Yushchenko, with his colossal advances: Europe's best banker, a talented economist, but in his five years as president, he lost everything he could, ending with a record-low result for a sitting president," he added.
Ukraine is energetically preparing for the 2019 rake race.