A chorus of political experts have said that the dismissal of Charman of the Rada, Dmytro Razumkov, is a consolidation of power in the office of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is not the first time, the president has been criticized for power grabbing.
President Zelenskyy and his party, Servant of the People, wants to dismiss Dmytro Razumkov from the post as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. Razumkov is a long time supporter of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and one of the founders of the party. He was an instrumental piece in the presidential and parliamentary campaigns of Zelenskyy and the Servant of the People Party.
But now, that bond has been severed. Lately, Razumkov has been openly against several of the ideas and actions of President Zelenskyy including the law of de-oligarchization. But this runs deeper, says several experts to Interfax-Ukraine. The move to dismiss Razumkov will also give the presidential office more power, all though it is not certain whether or not that was a part of the reason for his dismissal.
Vadym Karasiov, director of the Institute for Global Strategies, told Interfax-Ukraine that this would mean more power to the president:
“If the president wins this duel and Razumkov and the political forces that are grouping around him lose, this will mean strengthening presidential power, strengthening the presidential vertical with all the consequences.”
Director of the sociological service Ukrainian Barometer Viktor Nebozhenko went even further in his criticism:
“The President, in his desire to concentrate power, does not understand what political and personal threats these powers bear for him, and, on the other hand, does not understand that he is making the Ukrainian state machine corrupt,” the director of the sociological service Ukrainian Barometer concluded.
Not the first time
This is not the first time that the president has been criticised for consolidating power and in some cases even breaking the constitution. One example of this was following the sanctions targetting Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian national, oligarch and pro-Kremlin politician from the Opposition Platform Party. Alexei Jakubin, senior lector at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and expert on Ukrainian politics, gave his opinion on this issue to Ukraine Nu in May.
“In my opinion, the sanctions against Medvedchuk are unconstitutional. Because Medvedchuk is a Ukrainian national, there are courts and laws to handle the allegations of treason against him,” said Jakubin, who also mentioned the law on de-oligarchization as a tool to limit political opponents:
“The anti-oligarch law might be an attempt to limit the power of big oligarchs like Kolomoiskij or Akhmetov, but it might also be used against political opponents such as Petro Poroshenko,” says Jakubin:
“Opposition Platform have good chances of making it to the second round of elections, if an election would be called now. Their popularity is increasing in eastern and southern Ukraine,” Jakubin says, “and they run on a platform that looks a lot like what Zelensky did in 2019. It is about social reform, anti-corruption and stuff like that. They are pro-Russian, but those are not their main talking points,”
