MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/. The ongoing protests in Ukraine over a law signed by Vladimir Zelensky may not be entirely organic and could have been influenced by Western countries, Karin Kneissl, ex-Austrian foreign minister and head of the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues (G.O.R.K.I.) center at St. Petersburg State University, told TASS in an interview.
"Most likely, Zelensky made a mistake, at least from his own perspective. Like [leader of Ukraine’s Batkovshchyna party] Yulia Timoshenko, he put forward a rather strange argument: that they want to free themselves from foreign influence and therefore must take control of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and limit its independence," she said.
According to Kneissl, "this looks quite odd for a country and leadership that is heavily dependent on the West, and not just financially." "Perhaps this is where he miscalculated. I also cannot say for certain how genuine the current protests in Ukraine really are. It remains possible that they, too, have been coordinated," she emphasized.
The former Austrian foreign minister noted that she has seen opinions suggesting Zelensky is now facing his own "maidan." She recalled that the February 2014 maidan uprising "was very well-organized, generously funded, and most likely involved employees of the US embassy, among others who, in theory, should not have been engaged in such activities."
"After all, a diplomat’s job is to represent their country, not to stage revolutions or interfere in another state’s internal affairs. But we all remember the footage of US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland handing out biscuits to protesters," Kneissl pointed out.
On July 21, the Security Service of Ukraine searched 70 NABU employees, and carried out an inspection of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
On July 22, the Verkhovna Rada, where the majority of deputies belong to Zelensky’s party, passed a law stripping the NABU and SACPO of their status as independent bodies. That evening, about 2,000 Kiev residents took to the streets in protest, and many other cities followed suit. However, Zelensky signed the law into effect, and it took force on July 23, leading to a new wave of protests.