President Zelenskyy is building a corrupt autocracy, where the likes of Chernyshov and Mindich can steal without ending up in prison, and Zelenskyy himself can easily get re-elected.
To achieve this, he needs to eliminate critics and whistleblowers (like myself and the Anti-Corruption Action Center), then destroy NABU and SAPO, and curb independent media (I assume they’ll start with Ukrainska Pravda and NV, because of Fiala).
Next in line will be the military, who will be pressured by Zelensky’s SBI. This will become a widespread phenomenon closer to the elections.
And of course, by that time the “super-independent” Bureau of Economic Security will politely explain to businesses that it’s better not to resist. Then Mindich will take a liking to a successful company, and the BEB will seize it. And then another. And another. Until it becomes standard practice.
We’ve seen all of this before.
Ukraine is already no longer a fully democratic state. Taking advantage of the war, Zelensky has built a hybrid regime with elements of authoritarianism and kleptocracy.
I’m writing this after learning the details of the attack on NABU and SAPO: searches at no fewer than 70 locations, without court orders, under the guise of traffic accident investigations, and an SBU raid on SAPO’s confidential unit (with leaked operations and covert surveillance data).
Was there possibly a hostile mole in NABU? Maybe (we’ll see what the evidence says in court), but something tells me there won’t be any open hearings.
Let me remind you that there have been plenty of traitors within the SBU itself, including at the highest levels. For example:
1. Head of the SBU in Crimea, Oleh Kulinich — suspected of state treason.
2. Head of the Central Anti-Terrorist Directorate of the SBU (since 2016!), Dmytro Kozyura — “14 large-scale episodes” of passing information to an FSB agent (he confessed in court).
3. Head of SBU internal security, Andriy Naumov — accused of passing classified information about the Chornobyl nuclear plant to Russian intelligence, and of state treason.
4. Head of the SBU in Kharkiv region, Roman Dudin — suspected of state treason.
Today’s attack by the Presidential Office on SAPO and NABU is not about fighting external enemies.
It’s about protecting the internal ones — the fat, corrupt rear rats around Zelenskyy.
Vitaliy Shabunin
