[07-2023] Zelensky showing ‘authoritarian traits’, says Swiss intelligence report

Ukraine is at a “critical point” in its democratic evolution as it heads towards presidential elections in 2024, says a confidential assessment by the Federal Intelligence Service.

Zelensky showing ‘authoritarian traits’, says Swiss intelligence report (archived)

H/T: Emil Cosman / Rand Paul

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[2021] Ukraine’s Accelerating Slide into Authoritarianism

The Maidan Revolution alumni now seem to be trying to devour even some of their own members. In mid‐May, Kiev mayor Vitali Klitschko charged agents of the SBU, Ukraine’s state security agency, had come to his apartment in what he denounced as a continuing attempt by his political rival, Zelensky, to put pressure on him. Earlier in May, the SBU, the state prosecutor’s office, and police carried out large‐scale searches of various units of the Kiev city government, accusing the local authorities of misappropriation of budget funds and tax evasion, among other offenses. Although Klitschko was one of the original leaders of the Maidan demonstrations, Zelensky apparently now regards him as an annoying rival, since the Kiev mayor was a close ally of former president Poroshenko.

[2021] KIIS poll: Every fifth Ukrainian ready to vote for Zelensky in presidential elections

If presidential elections were held soon, incumbent head of state Volodymyr Zelensky would receive about 21.8% of the vote, according to the results of a sociological survey “Social and Political Sentiments of Ukraine” conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Ukraine: A War To Save The Rules-Based International Order?

Washington’s Fraudulent, Rules-Based International Order: Among the many deceptive arguments that Joe Biden’s administration has made about the Ukraine war is that Russia’s invasion is an attack of unprecedented severity on the liberal, “rules-based international order” established at the end of World War II. That allegation has been a constant theme of administration officials and their allies in the news media and the foreign policy blob. Proponents argue that the war is a global existential struggle between order and chaos, free societies and unprincipled aggressors. Biden has stated the thesis succinctly that the Ukraine war is nothing less than “a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between a rules‐based order and one governed by brute force.”

Ukraine: A War To Save The Rules-Based International Order?

DeSantis and Future Foreign Policy Disasters

With his refusal to go along with lockdowns and mask mandates during the pandemic, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis emerged as a hero to many in libertarian circles. But as his name is now consistently put forward as a prospective or even likely 2024 Republican Presidential candidate, those who view him favorably should take a sober second look. On foreign policy in particular, DeSantis promises to continue the disastrous policies of his predecessors, which have made us uniformly less free, less safe, and much poorer.

DeSantis and Future Foreign Policy Disasters

Attack on Syria church gathering kills 2

Two people were killed and 12 injured Sunday by bombardment of a church as it was being inaugurated in Syria’s central province of Hama, the official SANA news agency reported.

Sunday’s attack came two days after bombardment killed seven people including four children in the rebel-held Idlib region.

Around half of Idlib province as well as parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former franchise in Syria of al-Qaeda.

Attack on Syria church gathering kills 2

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