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Zelenskyy Bans Opposition Parties; Nationalizes Media
Is there a chance… a slight chance, but still a chance … that Volodymyr Zelenskyy isn’t quite the great savior of democracy we are being told he is?
In an address to the nation delivered Sunday, he announced a temporary ban on “any activity” by 11 political parties. The ban includes the Opposition Platform – For Life party, which holds 43 seats in Ukraine’s national parliament and is the largest opposition party. Opposition Platform – For Life is a pro-Russia party, but on March 8, party leader Yuriy Boyko demanded that Russia “stop the aggression against Ukraine,” according to Ukrainian outlet LB.
Also.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed a decree that combines all national TV channels into one platform, citing the importance of a “unified information policy” under martial law, his office said in a statement on Sunday.
His defenders will say that his country is under martial law in response to a foreign invasion and such times have justified extreme measures; like unto FDR ordering Japanese-Americans rounded up and put into camps in World War II, Woodrow Wilson jailing and prosecuting anti-war protesters during World War I, or Abraham Lincoln suspending Habeas Corpus during the Civil War.
This would be an awesome time to have reliable news media that had not been co-opted by the ruling party into propagandists for the Official Narrative. Is Zelenskyy a Saint of Democracy? Is Putin really the embodiment of evil? Is it treason, as Mitt “Pierre Delecto” Romney suggests, to be skeptical of the Official Version of Events? I really cannot say.
What I suspect but cannot prove is that Zelenskyy is probably a patriot trying to preserve his country, but also a politician who is not letting a crisis go to waste and a man who evidently knows how to work the media. And while Putin was wrong to invade Ukraine, he is probably not the arch-villain caricature the administration and their media make him out to be. I can’t know about any of that sure, but what I do know is this:
- All of our information about Zelenskyy, Putin, Ukraine, and Russia gets to us via the Administration and National Media.
- Both of those have lied to us repeatedly and shamelessly in order to advance Democrat-friendly narratives.
Biden desperately needs a foreign policy win after his absolutely disastrous showing in Afghanistan. That’s certainly plenty of motivation to shape the Russia-Ukraine narrative as a battle of Pure Democratic Good against Pure Russian Evil.
Published in General
The only possible disagreement I have with your points here is the characterization of Putin. I think he’s an arch villain. Otherwise, I think you’ve nailed it, VTK.
It’s a bit odd to me that he only became an Arch-Villain in 2016. (Remember when George Bush looked into his eyes and saw his soul?)
Zelensky reminds me a lot of Jozef Beck, with a little bit of Eduard Benes thrown in. Very similar situations. Hopefully his mistakes don’t play out the same way.
The man is also a psychopath (they can be very charming) and actor. I have no doubt that GWB meant what he said, but he also knew what he wanted to see. Just sayin’.
Given Lincoln did what he felt he had to do during the WBTS, I’m not worried about the Ukraine President’s actions . . .
Hell, we confined 120,000 people of a particular ethnicity into internment camps as merely a precaution during WWII, most of them citizens. And we didn’t even have an enemy presence on our shores. This is pretty small potatos stuff by comparison, so long as it doesn’t persist once the war has ended.
Mr Zelensky could simultaneously be a patriot and an authoritarian. After all, Mr Putin is.
We should all worry. What happens in Ukraine is the playbook for the DNC. Nancy Pelosi is effectively prosecuting political opposition and the Dems are trying to fund a government takeover of print media (they have already taking over TV and Big Tech).
“Opposition Platform – For Life” is a pro-Russia party; I can’t stop laughing. What an ironic name for a group that supports Russia. Have they demanded the resignation of Putin?
According to National Review,
“Zelensky Suspends Opposition Parties in Ukraine with Russia Ties
“Amid the ongoing Russian invasion, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council has reportedly banned the activities of eleven opposition parties with ties to Russia, and has merged the national TV channels in the country under one platform.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/zelensky-suspends-opposition-parties-in-ukraine-with-russia-ties/
He didn’t suspend all opposition parties-just those with Russian ties-big difference. Analogous to the German American Bund in WW2.
He suspended opposition parties that he claims have Russian ties. Should we just take him at his word? That’s my point. Truth is the first casualty of war. I am old enough to remember when Hamid Karzai was the heroic leader we were supposed to rally around.
I don’t have a problem with it. Your “prefutation” (procatalepsis) in citing other examples isn;t working as well as you’d like. You left out Churchill, who with the king’s cooperation, effectively did the same.
One could argue that our robust executive, separate from the legislative, is halfway there at any rate. Parliaments need stronger tools when the bombs are falling. It is obscene when the threat is truckers honking their horns, but to your credit, you didn’t cite Trudeau as an example.
The pro-Russian party leadership called on Russia to stop the invasion, eh? Of course they did. That’s so they don’t get murdered by their neighbors.
It’s not saying we need to be more like Ukraine to appreciate the pressure on desperate defensive wartime leadership.
Inter arma enim silent leges.
Wait, you have unapproved associations. No free speech for you!!
Quick, somebody spin this to make it look like something other than the rank authoritarianism that it is.
He did this a few years ago too, by the way. It’s a governing principle of this guy, not a war tactic.
Just like it is with our media. Wake up.
Remember how Trudeau justified his crackdown on the Truckers by claiming they were tied in with Neo-Nazi groups?
Dunno.
I object, on general principles, to the idea that I hold the beliefs I do because of the passive voice, and I don’t much care what others are saying and what those sayings are that are supposed to have influenced me to those ends.
I don’t expect Zelenskyy is perfect. And yet: were America under attack, I’d like to see our putative leaders hang in and make themselves visible in the way that he has.
LOL. Quick, somebody, spin this to make it look like Ottawa was being bombed into rubble at the time by those same truckers….
Get a grip, people. Otherwise, should the day come when the United States is attacked (and I don’t mean a tiny bit of square acreage on the East coast, horrible as that was; I mean the entire country, and perhaps even your bit of it), then I start to despair at the idea of what you might do to respond.
Where is Zelensky?
He’s in Kiev, of course. Obviously.
Was anyone sincerely anticipating elections taking place in Ukraine in the near future?
Have all the ballots been tabulated and reported from Mariupol yet?
Yeah that Zelensky is a real monster …. sure hope Putin puts him in his place.
Seriously people?
I’ve heard and read reports that Zelensky suppressed opposition parties before the recent Russian invasion, too. I don’t recall the details, and don’t know whether the claim is true. At the moment, I don’t have a very favorable impression of any of the various Ukrainian governments, Zelensky’s included.
This is part of the reason for my inclination to simply stay out of the present dispute. I don’t see why it should be our concern, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t go on trading with both sides. We used to do so, I think.
Ride out and meet them. But we wouldn’t be taking our marching orders from Wormtongue, Shieldmaiden of Rohan.
The next thing you know Zelensky might invade, indiscriminately bomb and murder civilians, take over Belarus and install a pro-Zelensky Ukrainian led government.
Zelensky is obviously an evil tyrant.
Just to restate the thesis in a probably vain attempt to keep the thread on topic.
I have no problem with any of that. The OP seemed a bit more on the “and you believe it” side in tone, if not by grammar. As you’ve stated it here, I’m down.
“We are being told” can be almost anything. People tell us lots of things.
I’m helping my daughter with her Latin class and one of the vocabulary words is (lex legis) so I got that last one. The translate option helped with the rest.
From CTH:
Anybody see other possible explanations?
Also:
It’s obvious that the reason Zelensky is doing this is the war is going so well for the Ukrainians and they are about to win. </sarcasm>
Some people are very simple and have a need to have good guys and bad guys.
There aren’t any.
But there are worse guys. Putin is one of those. He is close enough to a monster for people purposes.
There are countries that invade other countries. It is important to oppose this.
Gobbling up other countries is sooooo last century.
Let’s keep it that way.