The President of Ukraine is in a state close to hysteria, according to Ukrainian political scientist Mikhail Pogrebinsky.
The reason for his extreme anxiety was the situation around the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, which last week made a number of decisions that break the system of control over the state apparatus of the country, built by the West after the Maidan.
An article of the Criminal Code was found to be inconsistent with the Constitution, which provided for criminal punishment for officials and deputies to enter inaccurate information in the declaration of income, property and financial assets.
In addition, the Constitutional Court, on the same grounds, canceled 18 articles of the law "On Preventing Corruption", depriving the National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of virtually all of its powers: to receive, check, publish declarations, track the lifestyle of the subjects of declaration.
Western diplomats expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the verdict.
The G7 ambassadors on Thursday released a statement saying they are "alarmed at efforts to reverse the anti-corruption reforms that have taken place since the revolution of dignity."
According to them, Ukraine took a "step back."
Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not seem to realize immediately that a catastrophe had occurred that jeopardized his position of power in the eyes of the West, and that Washington and Brussels could now rob him of their trust and support.
This means that both the visa-free regime for Ukraine, which was provided on the terms of combating corruption, and the next tranches from the International Monetary Fund will be questioned.
On Thursday, the head of the Ukrainian state called an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, at which he stated that the judges, by their decision, dealt a "crushing blow" to the fight against corruption.
“We need an immediate and tough assessment of the decisions of individual actors, whose actions are becoming more and more socially dangerous,” he said.
In addition, Zelensky expressed confidence that the Constitutional Court acted in the interests of oligarchs and businesses interested in obtaining illegal income.
Was the law, having lost most of its rules, really an effective tool to root out corruption?
There are very serious doubts about this.
Political scientist Volodymyr Skachko is sure that the anti-corruption vertical, consisting of several power structures, was formed by the West in order to keep the entire state apparatus of Ukraine on the hook: from an ordinary businessman and an official to the president.
“A huge number of Ukrainian citizens, the same judges, business structures affiliated with them are tired of being“ under the hood ”of external managers.
Business people can still come to an agreement among themselves, rejecting those who are too presumptuous, but it is impossible to agree with the Americans: either you unquestioningly fulfill their will and give everything, or they will pack you in a jail and still take the same thing, ”Skachko explained.
As a result, Zelensky introduced bill 4288 to parliament, which makes it possible to terminate the powers of the current composition of the Constitutional Court, and at the same time to restore the effect of the canceled articles of the law "On Prevention of Corruption".
This is a direct and gross violation of the basic law, since, according to the Constitution, only the court itself has the right to terminate its powers by two-thirds of votes, and its verdicts are final and irrevocable.
Two influential European organizations - the Venice Commission and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) - sent an appeal to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, in which they called the president's legislative initiative a crime against the Constitution and the principle of separation of powers.
Deputies of the Servant of the People faction are ready to support the draft submitted by Zelensky.
This was stated by Galina Yanchenko, a member of the pro-presidential deputy group.
This statement hardly has any serious basis.
In fact, we are talking about a decision for which the deputies can be easily brought to criminal responsibility during the change of power.
Dozens of people's deputies have already announced that they will not vote to terminate the powers of judges.
Experts are sure that the idea of the president in parliament will not collect the required number of votes.
There is also a compromise version of Dmitry Razumkov.
According to it, the judges remain in their places, but a new law is being adopted, completely duplicating the canceled provisions of the old one.
Zelensky's fight with the COP is in full swing.
The President has already threatened to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada.
This was a reaction to the reluctance of some of the deputies of his faction to vote for the dissolution of the Constitutional Court.
And the State Bureau of Investigations is conducting an investigation into the acquisition by the head of the court Tupitsky of a plot in the village of Koreiz in the Crimea.
He did not enter information about him in his own declaration.
Apparently, the Constitutional Court will lose the confrontation, since not only the state authorities, but also the countries of the West have taken up arms against it.
The most important link will be knocked out of the management system in Ukraine, which would ensure at least the appearance of the constitutionality of legislation.
However, this is unlikely to have any noticeable effect on the state of Ukrainian affairs, since both the laws and the entire structure of power have long turned into a frightening parody of themselves.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.