The Untold Story of the #Ukraine Crisis
▻https://time.com/6144109/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-viktor-medvedchuk
Article datant de 3 semaines avant la guerre, qui revient sur l’année qui a précédé et la figure de #Medvedchuk. Le gars est l’homme de Poutine en Ukraine, celui-ci étant même le parrain de sa fille. Il est alors à la tête du plus gros parti d’opposition. C’est un oligarque richissime, il a plusieurs chaînes de télé qui servent sa cause. Un an avant le début de la guerre, Zelensky prend des sanctions contre lui et sa famille. Ca correspond au début de graves tensions avec la Russie et l’accumulation de troupes à la frontière. Les sanctions sont soutenues par les Etats-Unis, qui l’accusent plus tard de préparer une prise de pouvoir avec un soutien militaire russe.
Short of war, one of the best ways that Putin has to influence Ukraine is through Medvedchuk and his political party. So it should not be surprising that Russia’s military standoff with the West has escalated in step with the crackdown against his friend.
[...] He [Oleh Voloshyn, a prominent member of Medvedchuk’s party] told me he has no intention of taking power in Ukraine with help from the Russian military, and said the aim of his party was always to win power peacefully—either through elections or, as Voloshyn put it, a diplomatic “compromise” between the Russia and the West. “There is no third option,” he says. “Russia either gets the influence it wants by peaceful means, or it gets it by force.”
With Medvedchuk sidelined and his party in retreat, the Kremlin has no clear path to influence over Ukraine through politics, and that raises the temptation to use hard power, Voloshyn told me. “You have to understand,” he says. “There are hawks around Putin who want this crisis. They are ready to invade. They come to him and say, ‘Look at your Medvedchuk. Where is he now? Where is your peaceful solution? Sitting under house arrest? Should we wait until all pro-Russian forces are arrested?’”
Après le déclenchement de la guerre, le parti de Medvedchuk, labélisé pro-russe, est suspendu : ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/956315