Ukraine War Day #177: More Fun Palace Intrigues

A wealthy farmer left his only daughter with a magnificent dowry: When he died, she inherited vineyards, forests, lakes, rivers, mountains, farmlands, as far as the eye could see; servants as numerous as the sands of the desert; and hoards of gold coins too numerous to count. So what did she do? She blew it all in the course of 30 years, didn’t accomplish a single thing, turned into a royal bitch who abused her servants; and lost all she had. She was forced to make her bed out in the pigpen and sleep with the swines. One day her bridegroom returned from a long journey and learned what had come to pass. He shook his head reproachfully: “Ah, my dear Ucraina, what have you done? What have you done?”

(From The Parables Of Some Very Lost Gospels)

The Bridegroom returns: “Honey, I’m home!”

Dear Readers:

From serious topics like water shortages and abuse of civilians to … the wacky world of Palace Intrigues! Hence, this post is goes under the categories of “Cat Fighting” and “Celebrity Gossip”.

The core problem, of course, is that Ukraine (a) is losing the war, (b) has no money, and (c) is basically a failed state by this point. All of which factors feed into a climate of paranoia and a hotbed of intrigue within the ruling elite. As went the old Soviet joke: “Under capitalism it’s a dog eat dog world; but under Communism, it’s exactly the opposite.” The same could be said for Ukrainian fascism: It’s a mirror image of the dog-eat-dog world.

Let’s start with this piece by reporter Dmitry Zubarev. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klichko complains that somebody in Zelensky’s inner circle is out to get him. He doesn’t say exactly who, so we can only speculate. I think it might be Podolyak, but I’m not sure. Actually, it might be more than one person, because Klichko uses the plural form: данный разговор состоялся с представителями офиса Зеленского [the conversation in question took place with representatives of the Office of the President]. Klichko says this person or persons threatened to take away his Ukrainian citizenship. If that’s true, then it’s fucking outrageous!

Klichko used to know how to throw a punch.

Because Klichko is a loyal Ukrainian Bandera. Recall that, during the 2014 putsch, Victoria Nuland (in that famous intercepted phone call) discussed Klichko as one of the possible candidates for a high post in the new coup government. Rejecting him for a high post (probably because he is brain-damaged; not his fault, he used to be a boxer and suffered traumatic brain injury), but eventually allowing him to take the post as Mayor of the capital city. Where, for years, he has entertained the residents with his amusing malapropisms and other forms of dementia and/or aphasia.

Anyhow, Klichko says this all started when he signed an open letter (also signed by 100 other entrepreneurs and political figures, including Dnepropetrovsk Mayor Boris Filatov) to Zelensky complaining about the way Gennady Korban was treated. Who is Gennady Korban? It seems he is the leader of the Territorial Defense of the Dnepropetrovsk Oblast. And it seems that he was deprived of his citizenship, for some reason or another. So, these people organized a letter-writing campaign to stick up for Korban; and Zelensky was highly displeased at this show of insubordination.

Now on Zelensky’s shit-list, Klichko says Zel’s people have accused him, Klichko, of having dual citizenship; because he also carries a German passport. Klichko says this is a dirty lie. He does NOT have a German passport, only a Ukrainian passport. He vented his feelings to the Ukrainian magazine Babel.

Which One Is the Embedded Traitor?

Moving onto this youtube video. In which two members of Zelensky’s inner circle, Arestovich and Podolyak, assure us that they are good chums.

Frankly, I don’t know what they are talking about. Partly because they are jabbering in Ukrainian, which I don’t understand, except for a few words here and there. (Frankly, I can barely understand Arestovich even when he is speaking in Russian; he is just a chattermouth and doesn’t know how to slow down.) In other words, I can only get the bare gist of the matter: Some evil spirit has put out the rumor that these two guys are enemies, that there is some kind of bad blood between them. And they have to debunk that by showing how comfortable they are in each other’s company. Like they just finished a nice round of table-tennis, and now it’s time for a manly beer.

Seeing these two goofballs together, I think I believe them. They seem pretty happy with one another, and the smiles are genuine, for those who follow body language. I can’t help but note, however, that the third member of Zelensky’s Three Mouseketeers is missing from the stage: Andrei Yermak, aka “The beast of the Bandera-bunker”. So, who knows, maybe Alexei and Mikhail have teamed up together to plot against Yermak? ’cause I don’t hear them saying, “Oh, by the way, we love Yermak too!”

All of this reminds me of a very old joke, this joke goes all the way back to the Great Patiotic War, and even beyond. It goes something like this:

What do you call one Ukrainian?  A Commander.
What do you call two Ukrainians?  A partisan squadron.
What do you call three Ukrainians?  A partisan squadron with an embedded traitor.

Since the proverb is literally true, then, by the law of averages, one of those three guys is a Russian spy: Either Lusya, or Misha; or perhaps Yermak.