New tagline just dropped.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Wasn’t the oligarch that backed Zelensky’s career also backing Nazi formations at the same time? I haven’t looked in to this stuff in years because why bother, but I recall that being a thing.

      • culpritus [any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        this guy

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi

        One of Ukraine’s most popular TV channels 1+1, owned by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, has given Zelenskiy a powerful platform in recent months during his meteoric rise to the brink of the presidency.

        On Saturday, a day before Zelenskiy won the first round of the presidential contest and set up a run-off with the incumbent Petro Poroshenko, 1+1 filled its schedule with back-to-back shows by the comedian and actor.

        The fact that Zelenskiy is a major star on the channel has stoked worries among some investors and voters, and accusations from his political opponents, that he is in the pocket of Kolomoisky.

        and this guy was also involved

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadim_Rabinovich

        just reading a few paragraphs from this one, this kinda jumped out:

        On 25 March 2014, Rabinovich registered with the Central Election Commission as a self-nominated candidate for the presidency of Ukraine. This was partly to counter the characterization of the new Ukrainian government as antisemitic. After registering, Rabinovich said: "I want to destroy the myth about an anti-semitic Ukraine which is spreading around the world. Probably I’m the most fortunate candidate. Today unification is needed, and I’m a unifying candidate. I have no maniacal thirst for power, I just want to help the country". In the election, he received 2.25% of the vote, with his best showing in Dnipropetrovsk and the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts. Rabinovich was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) the same year, placing fourth on the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc’s electoral list.

        On 14 February 2022, Rabinovich published a post on Facebook, stating that “the war has started” and blaming the West and Ukraine for it. Following the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he left Ukraine and fled abroad.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Well, he ran on a platform that was much more conciliatory to Russia than his position in office, getting a lot of support from Donbas. Now he plays a Ukrainian nationalist that can hardly speak Ukrainian.

        I think he was basically told in so many words that he could either get a lucrative deal playing wartime leader or he could get a bullet to the head courtesy of Azov, and he chose the former.

        • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Now he’s kind of stuck in this situation forever. He can’t end the war with a treaty, because it would probably end in a negotiation to cede territory or for the Ukrainian military to leave Donbas and Luhansk alone. Zelenskyy would get shot in the head by some fanatical nationalist. He can’t keep the war going forever, because it’s such a mess that it’s somehow put a stress on the world’s supply of artillery shells.

          He’s just stuck in this eternal present, he’s a human embodiment of the concept of a quagmire

          • Kuori [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            lots of minority groups have members who join their oppressors, it’s sad and disgusting but not really uncommon. like have they never heard of a black or gay or trans conservative or fascist?

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              In Zelensky’s defense he ran on a peace platform promising to get some kind of peace negotiations going. It was very popular, though from what I understand the popularity was skewed somewhat towards the eastern half of the country with less support in the Banderite heartland of Galacia. When one he tried to put his promises in action and found out that the president doesn’t actually control the country, and that the Nazi formations and their allies had no intention of allowing the war to be stopped.

              • Kuori [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                i could see arguments for zelensky as a tragic figure, though the panama pandora paper reveals that he’s deeply corrupt don’t really do much for that interpretation imo. though i suppose depending on the timeline (i haven’t bothered to check) he could have meant what he promised, realized a bunch of hardened neo-nazi fighters weren’t going to take commands from a jewish man and then decided “might as well make some fat stacks at least”

                regardless yeah i remember that video of some right-sector (i think? might have been azov or someone else, there are too many nazis to keep straight) fighters flatly telling him to fuck off to his face when he ordered them to stand down