I thought President Petro Poroshenko engaged in self-delusion and public deception mainly abroad because he knows most foreigners don’t know what is happening in Ukraine.
But then Poroshenko spouted half-truths and untruths during his two-hour press conference in Kyiv at which 22 journalists (but not the Kyiv Post, again) were allowed to ask questions.
He came close to the truth here:
“There isn’t any politician in our country who would have an overwhelming majority of votes. Everyone conducts war against everyone. Bags of compromising material are often not confirmed by anyone,” Poroshenko said. “There is an attempt to plant depression and melancholy in Ukrainian society, and not only inside the country. Social networks apps, fake news programs – this is the component part.”
My rejoinder would be that Poroshenko’s performance in nearly four years in office — no rule of law, no criminal convictions of anybody, the continued flourishing of the oligarchy — is the reason for “depression and melancholy” in Ukraine.
Then, asked whether he will seek re-election in 2019, he gave the typical politician answer: I’m too busy doing my job to worry about politics.
“I wouldn’t like to talk about which presidential candidates are leading in the polls, because I am busy reforming the state, reforming the defense sector, foreign policy, and not working on ratings. I have been doing this from the very beginning. My decision about seeking reelection will come when the election campaign starts,” Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Feb.28.
My rejoinder: He’s too busy blocking reforms and persecuting political enemies, two of the reasons why he is not leading in the polls that he claims not to pay no attention to. He should start paying attention to what people think of him.
Poroshenko disputed that that his expensive weeklong Christmas vacation in the Maldives was a secret. Poroshenko said he traveled to the Maldives with his own passport under his own name and paid all the expenses from his own pocket.
He also threw out needless proposals, such as “anchoring Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration in the Constitution.” The integration will come when Ukraine’s leaders anchor the nation’s values into democracy and free markets, rather than the oligarchy.
Speaking of Ukraine’s oligarchs, who are responsible for making this nation weak and poor despite its strong people, Poroshenko saved his biggest untruth. He is, after all, the lead oligarch who has not lived up to his promise of de-oligarchizing the nation, one of his many campaign promises that got him elected.
But to hear him tell it, none of the oligarchs has any influence on him.
“The state authority cannot fight against a certain person. I am not going to do that either. I will not support this if someone else does it no matter what this person’s name is – (Igor) Kolomoisky, (Rinat) Akhmetov, (Dmytro) Firtash, (Sergiy) Kurchenko – you name them … I declare: for the first time, none of them has any influence on the president’s position,” Poroshenko said at the press conference he dubbed “Challenges 2018.
The reality is that the evidence shows that Poroshenko likely cut deal with all the major oligarchs — either to enrich them or keep them out of jail. This is a remarkable feat in a nation where $40 billion, at least, has been stolen from the nation since the start of the decade.
And so, adding to “Challenges 2018” for Ukraine is the need for a president who speaks the truth.
