Ukraine War Day #170: Lusya For President?

Dear Readers:

The main hot spot on the Ukraine map is the city of Soledar. All the forces from both sides are concentrating there, and looks to be a corker of a battle. Over this upcoming weekend I plan to do a 2-part (at last) series with some very interesting information about this amazing town. Did you know that there is an entire underground city made up completely of salt caves?

This is Friday, though, so let’s just do something for fun. Actually, before we do that, let’s do something not so fun. I am personally getting really disgusted with the (Russian super-patriotic) Intel-Slava telegram feed referring to Ukrainian soldiers as “khokhols” or even “pigs“. Check out these screenshots, the second one is even worse, where the tweeter takes glee in “burning Ukrainian pigs” with flamethrowers. Comrades, is this really necessary? Or is this supposed to be parody? If so, then it’s not funny.

This telegram channel claims to be “Funded by Putin, Russian ministry of defence, FSB, GRU and SVR” Are all of those supposedly reputable entities cool with such dehumanizing language in relation to other human beings? I hate to sound like a prude, but not all Ukrainian soldiers are Nazis, some of those “pigs” are elderly conscripts who got roped into the war not of their own choice. And even those soldiers who are patriotic Ukrainians, well maybe it is a horrible necessity to kill them in a time of war, but it is never necessary to de-humanize them, and it never necessary to gloat at the destruction of other human beings. Each one of those dead soldiers was loved by somebody: His wife, girlfriend, mother, children, even grandchildren some of them. And these rah-rahs who are gloating at their violent demise claim to be pious Orthodox Christians, sheesh. I can only imagine Jesus going, “Roast those pigs with my holy flamethrower!”

Also, at the risk of sounding too “woke”, have Ukrainians not made it clear over the years (even before this war) that they do not like to be called khokhols? The term is not that derogatory, to be sure, and certainly not as bad as “pigs”, but it’s wrong to call people by a name that they don’t like. My mother taught me that lesson, when I was five years old.

I Want To Be Prez!

Okay, with that off my chest, let’s turn to something more fun. My readers know that my favorite Ukrainian Nationalist (just because he’s so much fun) is Alexei Arestovich. Alexei’s handsome face is all over youtube each and every day; and has become so popular among the Ukrainian public that even the Russian MSM has started to take notice of him.

We come to learn that all the fame has gone to his head, he is even thinking about running for President! Arestovich qualified his statement by saying he would only throw his hat in the ring if Zelensky decided not to ballot for a second term. “Everybody is telling me about my crazy-high ratings,” Alexei boasts about his own popularity, “but my ratings are connected with [my role as Presidential advisor], and I do not separate myself from the President. If he [Zelensky] decides to run for a second term, then of course I will not try to undercut him. Not under any circumstances, that would be technically impossible.”

Alexei trolling himself by wearing his own “Lusya” tee-shirt.

Alexei is being too modest. He is way more popular and idolized than Zelensky. Women mob him when he walking down the street. His drooling youtube fans swear they cannot fall to sleep at night until they have heard his soothing voice assuring them that everything is gonna be okay.

Alas, by making such qualifications as he did above, Arestovich is showing the world that he does not actually possess the political gene. If he truly hungered for power, then he would not play Beta to Zelensky’s Alpha. He would go in for the kill, possibly even organize a palace coup, violently remove Zelensky, whom he actually despises. But I suspect, he just doesn’t have the heart for that. To be the President of a broken nation like the Ukraine, one needs to be an actual killer, and I don’t think Alexei has that in him.

Here is another reason why Alexei will never be President: In an interview with Ukrainian Nationalist Dmitry Gordon, Arestovich divulges the content of his thoughts during the first few hours of the war. Recall that the Russians tried a big huge bluff right at the beginning, pretending like they were going to take Kiev in “shock and awe” type decapitation strike. While Zelensky held firm and didn’t fall for this massive bluff, Arestovich admits that he blinked:

“I didn’t think I was going to survive. I saw what was happening at the Hostomel [Airport, where Russian commandos parachuted in]. I understood then: We were all going to be dead in 12 hours. I thought we were all going to be shot [by the Russians] in the first 12 hours.”

An incredulous Gordon asks him again: “In other words, you thought that Ukraine would be destroyed in the first 12 hours?”

Arestovich: “I thought that all of us in the Presidential Office, were done for, I didn’t doubt that, even for a second. I mean, I thought that Kiev would hold out for a couple of weeks, and that there would be street fights, but that Kiev would be taken. I thought the Resistance might hold out longer in the Western Oblasts.”

One of the commenters to the piece scoffs: “That little idiot Lusya doesn’t understand, the Russian Federation does not fight against the Ukrainian people […], and the goal for sure is not to kill idiots…”

For Lusya to make such an amazing admission, that he thought it would all fall apart in hours: This is why he will never be the President of Ukraine. And just as well for him: Alexei is a talented actor and an influcential psychologist, that’s what he is good at. He is not a politician, and will never be the leader of a nation. He doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to do what needs to be done. Not like Zelensky, who has proven himself to be as utterly ruthless as, say, a baby Stalin.

Arestovich also strikes me as a loner. To be good at court intrigues, one must be able to gather other people around, organize conspiracies among the Court Eunuchs and Generals, that sort of thing. Like Brutus and Cassius, for example. Alexei is more like a Marcus Antonius kind of character; if one could imagine Mark Antony delivering his rousing speeches on youtube every night: “Friends, Ukrainians, Countrymen, lend me your ears! We’re winning, we got ’em on the run – yeh!”