Few sights are as revolting as Ukrainian politicians who make friendly visits to the Kremlin in the midst of Russia’s war against Ukraine. On March 10, a group of Ukrainian lawmakers from the pro-Russian Opposition Platform party visited Moscow. The group included people like Vadym Rabinovich, an expressive politician who lives on Ukrainian television, and Rinat Kuzmin, a disgraced ex-deputy prosecutor general.
Leading them was none other than Viktor Medvedchuk, the Prince of Darkness, a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his unofficial representative in Ukraine. The group met with their counterparts in the Russian parliament, and Medvedchuk met with Putin separately. The Ukrainian lawmakers claimed they went to Moscow to discuss the “ways to achieve peace” in the Donbas, where Russia has been waging a proxy war against Ukraine for six years.
Of course, the people in this self-proclaimed “delegation” don’t admit that Russia has intervened militarily in Ukraine. They are perpetrators of Russian propaganda in Ukraine, and as such, they have been calling the fighting in eastern Ukraine “a civil war” or “an internal conflict.” Despite overwhelming evidence of Russian military presence, these Ukrainian politicians claim that it was a civil uprising by Ukrainians against Ukrainians. Which makes it strange that they would seek peace in the
Kremlin.
The “delegation” had no official standing whatsoever. The real peace negotiations with Moscow are conducted by the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Meanwhile, the sole purpose of such unofficial visits is to strengthen the image of the Opposition Platform as a real political force that enjoys an exclusive relationship with the Kremlin. It’s an artificial picture targeted at their pro-Russian electorate in Ukraine.
It is evident to anyone watching Ukrainian politics that the 44-seat Opposition Platform is a Russian influence group in Ukraine. It is home to shady politicians with no real views who seek nothing but personal wealth and are ready to serve the enemy that is killing their compatriots. Zelensky knows it, too. In August, he hinted that he had evidence the Opposition Platform was funded by Russia. “It will be a very loud story that will end very badly,” he said menacingly.
But the threat was empty. Six months later, the Opposition Platform isn’t just unbothered. It is useful. On March 5, the Opposition Platform’s votes helped Zelensky’s party to sack Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka, whom Zelensky once famously called “100% my own prosecutor general” but later found disappointing.
One hopes for the best: that the Opposition Platform’s trip to Moscow and its role days earlier in firing Riaboshapka were a coincidence and not a sign of an undercover alliance with Zelensky and his administration. But with Ukrainian politics, one knows to expect the worst.
