The mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, believes that Ukraine is moving towards authoritarianism and may cease to be different from Russia, where “everything depends on the whim of one person.”
Source: Klitschko in comments to a German publication The mirror
Details: The publication notes that Klitschko sees Ukraine on the path to authoritarianism.
Direct speech: “At some point we will cease to be different from Russia, where everything depends on the whim of one person…
There is now only one independent institution, but it is under enormous pressure: local government.”
More details: According to the mayor of Kyiv, “in the first months of the war, the country was without a leader, there was outright chaos, and mayors played a key role as opinion leaders, in the defense of cities, in helping the military.” But in the Office of the President, according to Klitschko, mayors are considered an “atavism”, only an obstacle to the centralization of power structures in the country.
When asked whether democracy in Ukraine is under serious threat, Klitschko answered after a pause: “Yes.”
However, according to him, “it is almost impossible to turn Ukraine into an authoritarian state just like that,” because Ukrainians are too freedom-loving for this.
The mayor of Kyiv also said that since the beginning of the full-scale war he had not had a single meeting or telephone conversation with President Vladimir Zelensky.
2023-12-02 17:01:10
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