If Andrey Yermak\u2019s downfall allows Kiev to focus on ending the war, he will have rendered his country one selfless service<\/p>\n
Andrey Yermak, longstanding head of Zelensky\u2019s administration in Kiev (officially known as the Presidential Office) has fallen.
\nAfter being subjected to a long-overdue \u2013 and probably not very surprising \u2013 search of his premises by the special anti-corruption agencies NABU (think of it as Ukraine\u2019s graft police) and SAPO (that would be the graft prosecutor), Yermak has lost his job.
\nAs sometimes happens on such occasions, he may also have gotten quite drunk. At least that\u2019s how a social media post by him read, where he mightily pitied himself and announced his departure for \u201cthe front.\u201d They\u2019ll be so relieved in the cold, wet dug-outs of collapsing Pokrovsk to hear that a pasty desk jockey in habitually crumpled fatigues is coming to their rescue. Not.
\nWhile he has not (yet) been officially charged, no one in Ukraine doubts that the trigger for Yermak\u2019s come-uppance is a whole tangle of currently exploding corruption scandals that are so wild they are shaking even Ukrainian politics, as Moscow has noted correctly: There is the Energoatom con (or, as they say in Ukraine, \u201cMindichgate\u201d \u2013 after another very, very close friend of Zelensky, Timur Mindich), where Yermak features as \u201cAli Baba\u201d\u00a0in the pertinent wiretaps. Linked to Mindichgate is the \u201cDynasty\u201d elite real estate (really, palaces) and money laundering scheme. Make no mistake, all of this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. In particular, the defense sector will prove a bottomless abyss of literally lethal corruption.
\nLast but not least, there are persistent and extremely plausible rumors that Yermak has, in effect, obstructed justice by sabotaging the investigations which have now done him in and was about to do so again. But, as Lenin used to say, \u201cwho, whom?\u201d Or, as the English say, this time, the anti-graft cops got their retaliation in first.
\nThe second-most-powerful man in the country after past-best-by-date President Vladimir Zelensky \u2013 and some speculate that Yermak was already overshadowing his own boss and close partner \u2013 was brought down by not one but a whole cluster of sleaze scandals! That, you may think, can\u2019t be topped.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s top aide resigns amid corruption probe<\/p>\n
But this is the Zelensky regime, and yes, they can! This is even worse than it looks at first glance because Yermak was not merely the head of the presidential administration, which is officially\u00a0Kiev\u2019s single most powerful institution. More importantly, Yermak has also been the central organizer and enforcer of the Zelensky regime as a political machine, sleaze, pressure tactics, purges and all. Beyond that, even Western mainstream media have long picked up on the extremely close relationship between the two men \u201csleep[ing] near each other\u201d in the bunker under the presidential offices, \u201cunwind[ing] by playing table tennis,\u201d\u00a0\u201cwatching classic films they know so well they can recite the lines,\u201d and working out.
\nIn sum, for the domestic politics of Ukraine, the fall of Yermak obviously means at least three things: First, those out to either topple Zelensky or turn him into \u2013 as they say in Ukraine \u2013 a \u201cqueen of England,\u201d that is, a powerless figurehead instead of the tyrant he is now, have scored a major victory.
\nThat is so, because, second, Zelensky\u2019s apparat is broken; no successor will be able \u2013 or perhaps even willing \u2013 to replace Yermak in terms of connectedness, embeddedness, reach and influence, and of quasi-symbiosis with the president.
\nMoreover, third, it is clear that Zelensky is no longer capable of protecting his nearest and dearest. We know because he did try, shielding Yermak from unpopularity and parliamentary demands for his dismissal for as long as he could. Politically speaking, therefore, it is not only Yermak\u2019s blood on the floor now, but also Zelensky\u2019s in the water. And everyone in Kiev \u2013 and beyond \u2013 knows.
\nBeyond Ukraine, there are, in order of actual importance, Russia, the US, and NATO-EU Europe. Concerning Russia, Yermak\u2019s last words \u2013 in politics \u2013 were that Kiev would never cede land not already occupied by Russian troops. In that sense, his absence can only be welcome.
\nYet one other thing seems also certain: Yermak\u2019s fall confirms Moscow\u2019s sense that the Zelensky regime is very diminished and may soon be over. That, in turn, may influence the Kremlin\u2019s already much-less-than-enthusiastic willingness to do business, that is, make peace with that regime. It certainly reinforces the Russian leadership\u2019s determination not to accept any compromise that neglects Russia\u2019s key demands: Its forces are advancing \u2013 increasingly fast \u2013 on the frontlines; Kiev\u2019s politics is a crumbling mess. Why make irrational concessions?<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Yermak gets the boot: How Western media reacted<\/p>\n
Regarding the US, the first thing to note is that the Ukrainian anti-graft cops and prosecutors who got Yermak are well known to answer to the US, the FBI in particular. With Yermak being pushed out on the eve of US President Donald Trump\u2019s Ukraine-skeptic emissary Dan Driscoll\u2019s visit, there can be no doubt that Washington wanted Zelensky\u2019s right-hand man gone.
\nThe Americans have done what they always do when push comes to shove, namely asserted their dominance brutally. Zelensky has only himself to blame for being so dependent on them. They may well become his undoing now, as they have before for other puppets in other proxy wars that they got tired of. If so, then this is good news for ordinary Ukrainians. Maybe, just maybe, the ousting of Yermak at this point, when the political battle over a new peace plan is raging, will help end this war sooner.
\nWhat about the NATO-EU Europeans? French Centrist party-organ Le Monde sums it up: Yermak\u2019s fall leaves them in a \u201cstupor\u201d while \u2013 and surely also because \u2013 it suits the US just fine. Le Monde cannot be expected to honestly spell out why, but we can: Whereas the Europeans are losing a key accomplice for sabotaging realistic peace initiatives, Washington is rid of a very poisonous snake in the grass. And don\u2019t miss an important detail: As so often, the self-marginalizing NATO-EU Europeans have been helpless observers. As far as Yermak was their man as well, they have been no more able to save him than his boss and intimate friend Zelensky was. The latter may well wonder how much he\u2019ll be able to expect from such \u201cfriends\u201d once his own time is up.
\nSpeaking of which, this war could go on or it could end with a negotiated settlement. Or it could also end with a crushing, unmitigated defeat for Ukraine and its remaining Western backers. Some even suspect that Yermak is lucky \u2013 or even surreptitiously happy \u2013 to get out before the whole edifice comes tumbling down. One way or the other, if his sordid downfall finally concentrates Kiev\u2019s minds on achieving an end with misgivings before facing collapse without end, then even Yermak will have rendered his country at least one selfless service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Andrey Yermak\u2019s downfall allows Kiev to focus on ending the war, he will have rendered his country one selfless service Andrey Yermak, longstanding head of Zelensky\u2019s administration in Kiev…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}