MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. The protests held across Ukraine after the adoption of a law that stripped the country’s main anti-corruption agencies of their independence were orchestrated by the United States, a move aimed at removing Vladimir Zelensky from power, Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries, an expert of the Other Ukraine movement, said.
"All this supposedly popular outrage is being organized by professionals. Zelensky is being guided along the path they need, and now he has been forced to take a step back. If the goal is to replace Zelensky while preserving the current regime, preserving its basic parameters, then by demanding such concessions, they simply demonstrate to the public that, look, their position is not firm. They accept one thing today, another tomorrow, that is, they can demand more," Dudchak told TASS in an interview.
The expert suggested that the next step in putting pressure on the current government could be the demand to dismiss someone close to Zelensky, for example, head of his office Andrey Yermak.
According to Dudchak, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SACPO), created at the initiative of the United States under the Democratic administration, remain an effective tool for managing Ukraine even under the new Republican administration.
"If, for example, Zelensky was more satisfied with, say, Brussels and London, he is less satisfied with Washington. After all, the structures (NACB and SACPO - TASS), created by the United States even under the Democratic administration, were, in principle, a mechanism to control the country via a compliant government, to direct it in the right direction. Zelensky apparently believed that Republicans wouldn’t use what the Democrats built. Why, I don't know? They’re using it quite effectively. They control many countries with the help of compromising materials," the expert said.
The situation with NACB and SACPO
Zelensky has long tried to establish control over NACB and SACPO, but they remained independent. On June 23, NACB filed corruption charges against Alexei Chernyshov, who used to be deputy prime minister and minister of national unity for Ukraine. Chernyshov is considered a very influential figure in Zelensky's inner circle, and this escalated the conflict. According to opposition deputies, anti-corruption authorities could soon bring charges against other people close to Zelensky.
On July 21, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out searches at NACB, and also raided SACPO. On July 22, the Verkhovna Rada, where the majority of deputies belong to Zelensky’s party, passed a law stripping NACB and SACPO of independence.
That evening about 2,000 residents of Kiev rallied, with rallies spreading to other cities as well. However, Zelensky signed the law. It came into force on July 23.
This triggered new protests. The protesters held posters with the image of Zelensky and Yermak accompanied by slogans like "Murderers of democracy are traitors of Ukraine" and "Dictators." The posters also said that "these two" are destroying the country, and "Ukrainians are not slaves." At another rally, men in balaclavas burned pictures of Zelensky and Yermak.
The West also blasted Kiev for the laws.
Zelensky backtracked and on Thursday when he submitted to parliament a bill on the so-called strengthening of the powers of anti-corruption authorities, which, in fact, reverses the previous decision to limit the independence of NACB and SACPO.