The disclosure by journalists of Ukrayinska Pravda of new circumstances of an accident involving Oleksandr Trukhin, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, literally blew up the social networks of Ukraine and the entire information space. Neither a possible Russian invasion, nor diplomatic missions in Kyiv and a possible union treaty, nothing else will definitely overshadow the news about the details of the accident with Deputy Trukhin.
The whole situation is just the most magnificent example of how the stupidity of one person can turn an ordinary situation into a nuclear explosion, and an routine small accident will expose and actualize a huge array of problems that we have in the state system of power.
Modern technologies give us great opportunities, but at the same time impose great obligations on us. Our actions can very often be easily traced through social networks, through the phone, through cameras, which are now present literally everywhere. If it comes to an official, a deputy, then the higher you are, the more attention will be paid to you - journalists, opponents, etc. pay attention to you. This is the norm for today's world. Societal pressure (which isn't always healthy, by the way) is something you constantly face when you're in power.
The "Trukhin case" began to smell bad from the very beginning. And the new details of the case not only confirm the initial hypotheses, but also bring the case itself to a completely different level! Let's look at how a small snowflake turned into a snowball, or how the fluttering of a butterfly's wing caused a storm.
- An accident occurs, several almost imperceptible notes are written about it. The news is quite ordinary, it is not widely distributed and would have disappeared in the news flow, but…!!! Our "hero" or his assistants decide to hide their tails. A mailing list is made to the media that published the news so that they remove it. And this act becomes known. News from the category of household becomes sensational and the whole country will know about it.
- Colleagues stand up for Trukhin, and he himself dodges questions in every possible way, the case is transferred to the DBR and an attempt to silence begins. Journalists periodically remind the authorities, including Zelensky, about this case, but we do not receive ANY official results within six months.
- investigation by journalists comes out, which reveals some of the details of the accident, which gives a lot of new information:
- The deputy carries with him a bag with a lot of cash (hello to the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, declaration and even FISCALIZATION named after hetmantsev). Where and why does the deputy have 150 thousand with him just in his trunk??? Why do we need the whole story with declarations and other nonsense that we have been hearing for the 8th year already, if it DOES NOT WORK at all (and billions of budget funds have been spent on this!!!)??? Why do deputies threaten us with declaration obligations, kill the possibility of depositing cash through terminals, introduce total fiscalization for small businesses, create more and more new regulations, but at the same time they themselves travel with a bag of cash of unknown origin? Why is Hetmantsev not going to start with the cash of deputies, mayors, officials, various security officials?
- A deputy of the Verkhovna Rada can calmly offer a bribe to the police on camera, i.e. commit a CRIMINAL offense. The representative of the HIGHEST legislative body of the country has a sense of complete impunity. Could this be normal for him? We don't know now. How should citizens react to such actions of their representatives? If a person to whom we have delegated the authority to write laws, to lobby for our interests, easily breaks the law, then isn't this an example for all of us? Our representative breaks the law, so we have exactly the same right to break it. He is a public person who sets and example (partially).
- The deputy, perhaps, calls the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and thereby makes the minister a defendant in the case of corruption, abuse of power, interference in the investigation, etc. Now the investigation is obliged to either confirm or deny these facts! If this does not happen, then in the minds of citizens, in public opinion, the version will be confirmed that the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs got the deputy off. In such a situation, the demand of political opponents for the resignation of the minister is an adequate measure and position! In any case, the case will seriously affect the political career of Denis Monastyrsky (it was Avakov who was our unsinkable minister, both in the time of Poroshenko and under Zelensky, and he got away with any of his strikes).
- It is very interesting to find out now the degree of participation of the Office of the President in concealing the details of the accident, because it certainly could not have happened without it.
- How many accidents happen every year with the participation of deputies, officials, judges, mayors, who manage to hushed up, because only because of stupid behavior when deleting news from the media, the whole country found out about the situation itself?
All these things will hit Zelensky personally very hard! All information artillery will personally hit him! And the channels of Akhmetov, and Poroshenko, and other participants will make every effort to kick Zelensky (just like they kicked Poroshenko for Gladkovsky, for example).
After all, in many respects it is Zelensky who is guilty of creating such a situation and a picture! After all, it was under his brand that Trukhin entered the Verkhovna Rada (I will write more about this below), it is the Office of the President that creates the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, etc. It was Zelensky who "pulled the blanket" over himself in resolving issues that are not included in the terms of reference of the President. When, instead of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, the president speaks to the Verkhovna Rada on economic issues, when the president speaks on the hryvnia exchange rate, when the president speaks on the number of patients with the corona, the number of beds in hospitals, vaccination, then he also takes responsibility for these things in the eyes of common men! When you are almost the only person in power, then prepare to get hit for everything. It doesn't happen otherwise.
Today everyone will forget about the arrival of another plane with military assistance, today everyone will forget about negotiations with Britain and Poland on a possible union, they will forget about the free trade zone with Turkey, they will forget about new roads, they will forget about everything, but Trukhin will be remembered for a long time - because he mixed almost all the problems of the Zelensky regime.
Almost in the end, I want to return to Alexander Trukhin himself. After all, this is a very colorful character. In 2019, I worked at one of the headquarters in the neighboring district with Trukhin and have some impression about him. And so, a fairly large farmer, a businessman who was a deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (though he was non-factional) in the Poltava Regional Council, abruptly changes his views and miraculously ends up in district 40 (Dnipropetrovsk region) from the Servant of the People (although he was really born in Kamensky)! By the way, the people who secured Zelensky’s victory in our region did not know at all where these candidates came from, and they themselves were quickly moved from the headquarters of the “Servants”. Some people associate Trukhin's miraculous political rise with the Privat group, namely with Alexei Martynov. The very fact of a sharp transition from Poroshenko to Ze-team speaks of the “deep ideological steadfastness” of this deputy, in a word – a weather vane. The election campaign itself went on with a huge number of violations and black PR, which were filed by observers. As a result, another collector of corrupt rent got into Verkhovna Rada under the Zelensky brand. Now, in the face of a serious scandal, it would be interesting how the process of selecting candidates, interviews were arranged, because it is not the first scandal with deputies from the Servant of the People. And rumors about the sale of districts were very intense, and such deputies as Trukhin only confirm this. The fact that Trukhin was expelled from the faction after the scandal will not take away his deputy badge.
As a result, we have another major scandal involving senior government officials, even the prospect of the resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs, enormous reputational losses for Zelensky personally and the understanding that the entire vertical of power is an ordinary “house of cards”, behind which there is almost nothing.