Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky has made some questionable moves recently.
Now it's understandable that he is under a lot of pressure.
A lot of stress his country has been invaded by Russia.
There are entire major cities that have been leveled as a result of the brutality
of Putin's war against Ukraine.
However, now you have Zelensky taking control of the media while also
doing away with opposition parties that are far more sympathetic to Russia.
Now, some might say that's understandable, there in the middle of war,
this is martial law, but I disagree.
I think strategically this is a bad move and honestly,
optically it's a bad move as well.
Let me explain first the details, the new platform named United News is a national
security measure given the direct military aggression of the Russian federation.
The active dissemination of misinformation by the aggressor state and
distortion of information, as well as justifying or
denying the armed aggression of the Russian federation against Ukraine.
Zemlinsky's office said in a statement, essentially, Zelensky has
decided to merge all national television stations into a single platform.
And he says that this is just his effort to combat disinformation.
Now, I don't know if you guys agree with me on this, but so
far I think that Ukraine has done a pretty good job in the propaganda war.
Okay, and
it's not just because Ukraine is savvier than Russia when it comes to propaganda.
We all see the videos, we all see the brutality,
we all see what Russia is doing through its illegal invasion of Ukraine.
So the people of Ukraine have put up a fierce resistance to Russia.
So, I mean, look, I would be against this no matter what.
But maybe he would have a legitimate argument if the disinformation was so
persuasive that you now have Ukrainians fighting one another
rather than resisting the Russian invasion.
But that's not what's happening here.
According to the release, United News will mainly consist of information and
or information analytical programs on a single information platform of
strategic communication.
And will be a round the clock information marathon.
There's gonna be a lot of information guys, okay, but
only one kind of information.
The announcement which came under martial law means the suspension of privately
owned and operated media outlets in Ukraine.
And Zelensky unfortunately has decided to take things even further.
On Sunday, he announced in a speech that the National Security and
Defense Council of Ukraine has decided to block 11 various political parties.
So here's the statement by the president.
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine decided,
given the full-scale war waged by the Russian Federation and
the ties of some political structures with the state.
Any activity of a number of political parties during the martial
law is suspended.
Namely opposition platform for life, Sheriy Party,
Nashi, Opposition Bloc, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces,
State Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine.
Socialist Party Volodymyr Saldo Bloc.
So those are the parties that would be impacted by this.
And if you're curious what the reasoning is, he says the Ministry of Justice is
instructed to immediately take comprehensive measures to ban
the activities of these political parties in the prescribed manner.
Everyone must now take care of the interests of our state,
the interests of Ukraine.
Now, the parties that he listed tend to be far more sympathetic to Vladimir Putin and
Russia, but most of them have no power right, there tiny parties,
they have no power with one exception.
So most of the parties affected were small, but one of them the opposite
opposition platform for life has 44 seats in the 450-seat Ukrainian parliament.
The opposition platform for life is led by Viktor Medvedchuk,
a pro-Moscow oligarch with close ties to the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Party officials later said the suspension had no legal basis.
Listen, if you're gonna claim that you're a democracy and
that's what we keep hearing over and over.
And so this is a pro democracy country, pro democracy,
you can't ban a political party that has 44 seats in parliament.
I mean, I just think it's a bad move and it provides fodder for the Russians.
I mean, one of the claims that they keep making is
that ethnic Russians are treated terribly in Ukraine and
that's part of the reason why they needed to do this invasion.
Don't give them any evidence or fodder for that.
I think it's a really bad move and I actually do want to also discuss,
how similar Zelenskys actions are in my opinion,
to some of the moves that Vladimir Putin made in Russia years ago.
Now, I want to show you two different videos.
The first one has to do with Vladimir Putin coming into power as president and
one of the first things he did once he had power, let's watch.
>> Putin moved to consolidate power.
One of his first targets television.
>> One of the first things he did was to take control of television because more
than 90% of Russians got all their news from television.
During the Yeltsin years, independent television channels
like NTV flourished even as they ridiculed political figures.
>> NTV has a comic show called puppets and when Putin comes to
rise in public life that features a Putin puppet as well and
he's never portrayed very flatteringly.
Putin apparently was driven to madness by the show and
by the way he was portrayed on it the way he was mocked on it.
>> NTV and its owner Vladimir Gusinsky came into the crosshairs of
Putin's government.
>> He sent armed operatives from the prosecutor general service and
the tax police to raid the offices of media most the parent company of NTV.
>> So Putin comes into power as president and just starts shutting down any type
of media, he dislikes any kind of media that it might be satirical and
might poke fun at him, shuts it down.
Anything that might oppose Putin's policies shuts it down.
Now some might argue in defense of Zelensky while this comparison is apples
and oranges.
Because with Vladimir Putin we're talking about an authoritarian who just used
his position of power to continue consolidating power.
There was no crisis, there is no martial law, which okay,
that's a fair argument fair.
But what about what Vladimir Putin did when there was a terrorist
attack in Russia.
Well, in an autonomous zone,
that the Chechens wanted to avoid making part of Russia, right.
So this is known as the best Lin terror attack.
This was in September of 2004 awful,
awful hostage situation where a school was held hostage for
several days by Chechen terrorists and Vladimir Putin refused to capitulate.
Instead he sent in his own troops and that led to just a complete and
utter nightmare.
But, while that story itself is bad enough, what Putin did in exploiting that
tragedy to consolidate power is the point that I'm trying to make here.
So let's watch.
>> Putin's troops were armed with rockets, grenade launchers and flame throwers.
>> A lot of the children who burned alive, burned alive because of a fire that raged.
>> It turns into this debacle and
the end result is corpses of little children stacked like firewood.
>> More than 320 people were killed,
half of them children in the tragedy in the town of Bestland in the north.
>> Putin seized on the tragedy to expand his power and control.
>> Demanded a radical shakeup of security and greater powers.
>> Canceled elections throughout the country.
>> Governors and leaders of Russians doesn't.
>> A new rules forced out the most outspoken members of the parliament.
>> Forced out the most outspoken leaders of the parliament.
It sounds strikingly similar to what Zelensky is doing now by pushing out 44
parliament members who happen to be part of an opposition party that
is sympathetic to Russia.
I understand where Zelensky is coming from.
He's under attack, his people are under attack, civilians are dying.
There is a refugee crisis as a result.
However, what he's doing does not solve anything, right, consolidating power,
shutting down opposition groups, shutting down any type of independent media.
It's not right, he shouldn't do it.
And honestly, when it comes to propaganda again,
I would argue that the Ukrainians are winning.
There's really no need to do this.
This further complicates the peace talks.
Putin is way less likely, way less likely to strike a deal with Zelensky.
If he's seen as consolidating power, Zelensky is move does provide fodder for
Russians who claim that ethnic Russians are being treated poorly in Ukraine.
And that's why they need to invade and save the day.
And it's just again, unnecessary to do this censorship,
especially considering how Ukrainians are clearly winning the propaganda war here.
Everyone sees what Russia is doing, everyone sees the brutality that's being
carried out, everyone sees how much the civilians are suffering.
The opponents within Ukraine right now clearly are not powerful or
persuasive enough to convince the Ukrainian people and
the Ukrainian military to just give up and stop resisting.
They're resisting, they're resisting fiercely.
And again, I just don't think that this was the right move for Zelensky.
It was completely unnecessary.
By the way, going back to that school hostage crisis,
I want to give you updated numbers, 333 people died, including 186 Children.
All because Putin refused to capitulate,
he refused to engage in any kind of negotiation.
And that's terrifying because it shows you that he doesn't give a damn about
anyone's life.
He doesn't care about the lives of Russian troops.
He doesn't care about Ukrainian civilians, including children.
I mean, we've seen that with the brutality that he's carried out.
And so if there's anything that should be top of mind,
it should be, what can we do?
What can Zelensky do?
What can the west do to support the peace negotiations?
Don't take steps backwards by further provoking
a man Putin who clearly doesn't care about human lives at all and
is willing to see everyone go down in flames just to prove a point.