Cracks and Distractions

But a win for democracy

Cracks, ©2025, William L. Brown

Responding to mass protests throughout Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky reversed his plan to interfere with two independent national anti-corruption bureaus. He promises a law to countermand a recently passed law that takes away the agencies independence.

It’s not a coincidence that the law was written and passed by politicians under investigation by the independent agencies. Policing forces under government control raided offices and private homes of the independent National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), seizing documents, computers, phones, etc. Some agency members required medical attention due to rough treatment.

NABU and SAPO employees were charged with feeding information to Russia, doing business with Russia, aiding draft-dodging, and other crimes, some of them petty, such as causing a road accident.

By signing the law taking away NABU and SAPO’s independence Zelensky undermined his credibility and gave credence to claims that Ukraine is corrupt and his presidency is illegitimate.

Volodymyr Zelensky is an actor. He was handed his best, most important role by Russia when it launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He plays the underdog hero-president perfectly. His statement when offered an escape from Kyiv as it came under attack, “I don’t need a ride, I need ammo!” won the world to his side in 2022. He continues to do so. Every world leader who crosses him, Putin, Orban, Fico or Trump finds themselves cast as a cartoon villain in the media. When President Trump and Vice President Vance chastised Zelensky in the Oval Office last spring they came off as sour-face bullies. Ze’s popularity and support soared while Trump’s fell like a stone.

Zelensky uses his acting skills, but that’s not to say he is insincere. Truly he is a patriot and good war-leader. However, he’s a politician, and like most, his hands are not clean. He has connections to the oligarchy, he is himself wealthy from his media-business dealings before he ran for office.

He ran as a centrist anti-corruption populist, but once in office there were worrisome signs of corruption. Nothing approaching the scale of previous presidents, but he raised alarm by reshuffling his cabinet, replacing some of the ministers with people suspected of oligarch-connections and corruption.

His popularity was sinking in the winter of 2021, only weeks before the full-scale invasion. The media reported some scandals: Zelensky’s name came up in the Pandora Papers leak, there were allegations that a call from the president’s office scuttled an intelligence operation to arrest two wanted Wagner mercenaries, then a report that “Ze” had improperly used a government helicopter as transport to a birthday party. He was also criticized for taking lavish foreign vacations.

Distraction, ©2021 William L. Brown

“Ze” held an invitation-only five-hour press conference in November, 2021 in which he alleged a Russian coup plot against him. The plot supposedly involved Ukraine’s richest citizen, who just happened to own media outlets with an anti-Zelensky slant.

Zelensky addressed the Rada (the legislature) in early December with more attention-grabbing topics such as proposing direct talks with Putin and dual-citizenship for the Ukrainian diaspora.

It was typical attempt to chase scandal-headlines off the front page. There are echoes in his recent actions, particularly charges of Russian plots. Ze claims fears of Russian interference in NAPU and SAPO were his concern, and the new law he proposes, which he says will restore anti-corruption independence, also contains measures, such as bi-yearly employee lie-detector tests, to curtail Russian interference.

Zelensky may be a disappointment, but Ukrainian democracy came out the winner. The Ukrainian people’s response was thrilling. They, especially the youth, turned out in record numbers to protest, to protect the principles of the Revolution of Dignity. Those principles are to align the country with the democratic west, free of corruption. They take western values and accomplishments seriously, even when we don’t.