Ukraine currently risks following the path of Georgia and Hungary
It seems that the foundation for a future "Ukrainian Dream" is being laid right now.
A platform whose sole unifying ideology will be ressentiment. A platform for the aggrieved.
Aggrieved by the Ukrainian language, aggrieved by the loss of their Russian elitism, aggrieved by 73%; aggrieved by the West, which is in no hurry; aggrieved by grant-eaters; aggrieved by Ukraine’s broken justice system that sets free judges who, while drunk, maimed and killed people;
Aggrieved by Ukraine’s social system, which doesn’t have enough for everyone but somehow has enough for disabled prosecutors; aggrieved by being pushed away from honeypots; aggrieved by the humiliating evasion of mobilization and aggrieved by years of war without relief.
The question is purely technical—how to package all of this into a sufficiently vague and ambiguous ideological shell to alienate as few of the aggrieved as possible—ultra-right and leftists, conservatives and cosmopolitans, pro-Russian sympathizers and those who defended Ukraine from day one, entrepreneurs and teachers, refugees and those who stayed in Ukraine.
Something between "We’ll show them all," "Make Ukraine Great Again," and "ZaYedU" ('For United Ukraine'). Yes, so that everyone sees something of their own—what hurts them most.
Then the technology is simple—targeted promotion in unmoderated social networks. Hello, Romania.
And, of course, deeply embedded in this populist Frankenstein will be the hand of the Kremlin.
I am frankly terrified by such a scenario. With every mistake made by our government and our partners, the base for such a platform will grow. If not in a year, then in 2-3 years, we’ll get what many European countries are already suffering from.
The only thing that comforts me is that, for now, it’s hard for me to imagine such a project gathering enough executors, functionaries, and contractors. I doubt there are so many capable and unprincipled degenerates out there.
The overlap between "capable" and "unprincipled" is small. For every smart Portnov, there are ten dim-witted Shariys.
But keep this scenario in mind. This is my plea to the military, lawmakers, government officials, entrepreneurs, and civil society.
To everyone, everyone who truly cares about our country.
We are paying too high a price to go down the path of Georgia or Hungary.
