Ads for replacements of Vladimir Zelensky aren’t uncommon, even when he has disposed of virtually all of them already.
That leaves only one, Andrei Yermak, head of the Presidential Workplace — prompter, gray eminence, consolation blanket of Zelensky in nearly each vital transfer he has made since 2019– and now candidate to turn into prime minister in a revolutionary switch of energy within the Kiev regime, decreasing the presidency to a shadow; centralizing all army and civil command in Yermak’s workplace, however letting Zelensky keep alive.
Promoting Andrei Yermak to be prime minister is uncommon in Vzglyad, the semi-official platform in Moscow for political and safety evaluation. That is particularly so at this time limit when President Vladimir Putin has recognized the Kiev regime as accountable for the Crocus Metropolis Corridor assault, and the Basic Workers are escalating the Russian offensive on the bottom alongside the road of contact east of the Dnieper River, and within the air deep into the west so far as Lvov.
What warfare intention could be served by Vzglyad’s sign that Yermak could also be a suitable counterparty to the Kremlin for negotiations to finish the warfare in need of regime capitulation – until the sign is a false flag, supposed to encourage Zelensky to avoid wasting himself by eliminating Yermak, as he did Basic Valery Zaluzhny, and thereby depart nothing and nobody in Kiev to place a brake on the Russian resolve to create a demilitarized zone all the best way to the Polish border.
What follows is a verbatim translation of the publication on April 9 of a piece in Vzglyad by Vasily Stoyakin, entitled “The omnipotent ‘Inexperienced Cardinal’ is working behind Zelensky’s again”. There is no such thing as a precedent within the mainstream Russian media, nor in army blogs and the web media, for promotion of any finish for the Zelensky regime, besides its finish. A profile of Yermak which is impartial to constructive in direction of the function he has performed to date and will play sooner or later is so distinctive that the actual fact it seems now could be extra vital than what the story, compiled from earlier publications, really says.
Oleg Tsarev, a number one Ukrainian opposition determine in exile in Russia and potential candidate for the Ukrainian president after the Russian victory, has ignored Yermak in his common Telegram commentaries; Zelensky and Yermak focused Tsarev for assassination in Crimea final October, however failed.
Dmitry Rogozin, a attainable presidential candidate for the Russian presidency, has talked about Yermak as soon as in his Telegram channel, declaring: “the Bandera management of Ukraine has launched into the trail of ‘the ultimate answer of the Russian query.’ Effectively, [they are] artistic folks. [They are] comedians [Zelensky], [television] producers [Yermak]. Hitler was additionally an artist. Mediocre. However in different respects he surpassed everybody. This, apparently, is enviable. They need to repeat it. We’ll should do it once more.” Rogozin is at the moment senator for the Zaporozhye area. He was focused for Ukrainian assassination in Donetsk in December 2022; he survived.
There are two explanation why Yermak is likely to be thought-about by the Kremlin to be the substitute for Zelensky with whom a negotiated settlement might be reached. One is that it has reportedly occurred earlier than. In September 2020, when Yermak and Zelensky had been assembly in Muscat, Oman, with the Omani international minister and different officers, the Russian Safety Council Secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, flew to Muscat and reportedly met them for a number of hours. What occurred between them stays secret. Much less secret is that the plane on which the 2 Ukrainians returned to Kiev was recognized to be the identical plane which had introduced Patrushev to Oman.
The secrecy was uncovered by the US authorities’s propaganda organ, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, after which amplified by the Ukrainian press. Yermak claimed the report “doesn’t correspond to actuality” attacking the US-financed Ukrainian supply for “a blatant manipulation of public opinion [as] a part of the aggressor’s data operations in opposition to Ukraine.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the reported assembly was “a basic instance of pretend information”.
The second purpose for attainable Russian favour for Yermak is an extended historical past of his household’s connections to Russia. His mom is a Leningrader; his father, a Jewish Kievan, served in a Soviet authorities company in Afghanistan; since then he and Yermak himself have had private and enterprise connections with Russians engaged with the intelligence providers.
Stoyakin cites no official Russian supply on Yermak and attracts this unsure conclusion: “Final yr, it was assumed that within the occasion of Zelensky’s demise, Yermak might head a specific collective administration physique that might substitute the president; in keeping with the Structure, the performing speaker [Ruslan] Stefanchuk needs to be, however he doesn’t get pleasure from authority. Some western media even consider that Yermak might turn into Zelensky’s successor. Ukrainian political analysts, given Yermak’s low recognition, consider that the pinnacle of the OP [Office of the President] will attempt to turn into prime minister whereas retaining management of the president’s workplace. On the identical time, the centre of the nation’s political life will transfer to the federal government. Nevertheless, plainly such a change is feasible solely in peacetime – in wartime, the primary focus remains to be on the army sphere, which is subordinate to the president.”
For a backgrounder on Yermak’s profession, learn this.
The US-Ukrainian sources for the reported Omani talks between Zelensky, Yermak, and Patrushev declare that Zelensky and Yermak arrived in Muscat on January 5, 2020. Zelensky’s keep at an Omani resort was first reported, with pictures, by Strana.ru. One other Ukrainian supply, texty.org.ua, then printed particulars of related flights arriving and leaving from Muscat across the identical time; these included the arrival of Victor Medvedchuk, the Ukrainian opposition occasion chief near Putin, within the afternoon of January 7. He was adopted a couple of hours later by an plane arriving from Moscow. The subsequent day that plane returned Zelensky and Yermak to Kiev. The Medvedchuk plane then flew to Moscow.
The printed Ukrainian investigation on the time concluded: “What did Zelensky and Yermak discuss with representatives of the Russian authorities coping with safety points? We will solely guess.”
Two official information of Zelensky’s and Yermak’s conferences in Muscat on January 5-8, 2020. Above, Zelensky with the Omani Overseas Minister,Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah. Beneath, Zelensky and Yermak with the President of the Omani State Basic Reserve Fund.
Prior to now week Yermak has been courting the English-language media to press for extra money from the US Congress, extra Patriot anti-aircraft missiles. “We all know that Putin is getting ready a brand new wave of mobilization and we reckon new counter-offensive operations by the Russians might begin on the finish of the Might or the start of June. After all, we’ve to be prepared for this. We nonetheless critically want extra air-defense methods as a result of with out them it’s unattainable to for us to defend our cities…I’d like to emphasise that it’s a vital second now. It’s crucial the [Congressional] bundle is accepted this month…[there has] to be payback for what the Russians are doing to us. We should damage their vital infrastructure — as the one language they perceive is pressure.”
He dominated out negotiations with Moscow. “The Russians aren’t concerned about any negotiations. They need the capitulation of Ukraine. However it can by no means occur — all of us who’re in Ukraine, we won’t settle for any compromise on our independence, on our territorial integrity, on our freedom. And this president won’t ever conform to something just like the Minsk agreements or a frozen battle. No, I’m certain about that.”
These publications appeared within the German-owned Politico on April 4. 5 days later Vzglyad printed this.
Supply: https://vz.ru/world/2024/4/9/1262431.html
April 9, 2024
The omnipotent “inexperienced cardinal” is working behind Zelensky’s again
By Vasily StoyakinUkrainian political scientists declare that the chief of the Kiev regime doesn’t make any determination solely on his personal. Out of necessity he consults with one other official – the pinnacle of his administration, the workplace of the President of Ukraine, Andrei Yermak. What sort of individual is that this, the place did he come from, and what’s his actual energy over each Ukraine and Zelensky?
Not too long ago, Ukrainian specialists have been paying an increasing number of consideration to the pinnacle of the Workplace of the President of Ukraine [OP], Andrei Borisovich Yermak. He had beforehand performed an exceptionally giant function in Zelensky’s entourage, and after the resignation of Secretary of the Nationwide Safety and Protection Council [Alexei] Danilov and first assistant to the president [Sergei] Shefir, this affect turned complete. Who is that this man who, because it was stated in a doc from one other historic period, “concentrated immense energy in his arms”?
Left to proper: Andrei Yermak, Alexei Danilov, Sergei Shefir.
How did Yermak get to Zelensky
Andrey Yermak was born on November 21, 1971 in Kiev. He comes from an clever household, his father labored on the Artem rocket manufacturing unit, and [was] the pinnacle of the personnel division of the USSR commerce mission in Afghanistan.
Yermak is Zelensky’s colleague, who can be a lawyer, and his schooling is just not much less prestigious – Yermak graduated from the Institute of Worldwide Relations of Kiev College. Along with the diploma, he instantly acquired additional awards as an English translator (he actually speaks higher than Zelensky) and the appropriate to apply regulation.
Yermak is commonly reproached with the truth that he began in authorized service for the stalls out there, however there may be nothing stunning right here – it was the Nineteen Nineties, so the place ought to one begin? Many individuals who’ve made a profession in enterprise and politics have began with one thing like this. Furthermore, then he went right into a progress enterprise, discovered his area of interest – copyright. He labored with media supervisor Evgeny Rybchinsky (son of the well-known Soviet songwriter Yuri Rybchinsky).
Within the mid-2000s, he met Vladimir Zelensky, who had simply began showing on tv.
In 2011, he started working with Studio Kvartal-95 as a producer. In 2017, Yermak turned the producer of the movies “The Rule of Battle” and “Inter” (unrelated to the “Quarter”). On the identical time he turned a member of the Ukrainian and European movie academies. Later, three extra movies had been launched underneath his manufacturing and co-production. Details about Yermak’s function within the “Quarter” is contradictory – it may be stated for certain that the cooperation started with authorized points, whereas Yermak’s pursuits as a producer went far past the tasks of the “Quarter”.
In 2018, Yermak turned a member of Zelensky’s election headquarters. On Might 21, 2019, Zelensky appointed Yermak as his assistant. On this place, he oversaw international coverage and worldwide relations, together with negotiations with Russia and the republics of Donbass. He was accountable for organizing conferences within the Normandy Format on the Ukrainian aspect.
For an in depth briefing on the Normandy Format negotiations which Dmitry Kozak held with Yermak, click on to learn.
On February 11, 2020, Yermak was appointed head of the Workplace of the President. It’s believed that the resignation of his predecessor Andrei Bogdan was the results of a battle with Ermak.
Contradictions in Yermak’s coverage
Yermak’s relationship with Zelensky is sort of peculiar – till 2022, they had been separated extraordinarily hardly ever. In 2020, they even fell sick with coronavirus synchronously and had been handled collectively on the nomenclatura hospital within the resort space of Feofaniya. This induced jokes within the media neighborhood, however for some purpose they didn’t develop into rumours, though there is no such thing as a details about Yermak’s marital standing in open sources. It was solely after the outbreak of the armed battle that he started to journey overseas on his personal – and, one should suppose, in the mean time he has acquired a powerful variety of lobbyists within the allied nations of Ukraine.
On the identical time, Yermak is just not a public politician. He hardly ever offers interviews. The posts of the pinnacle of the OP on social networks are units of emoticons. He refuses to touch upon these puzzles. Nevertheless, he expresses most of what must be communicated to the general public by means of his speaker, ex–Belarusian journalist and political strategist Mikhail Podolyak.
The primary state of affairs wherein Ermak was publicly highlighted was an try and oust Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko in the summertime of 2019; Yermak was against the removing of the Kiev mayor. Yermak then met with Trump’s lawyer [Rudolf] Giuliani – and so they agreed on one thing. In any case, Klitschko nonetheless retains his place, and relations between Ukraine and the US have improved, culminating in Trump’s introduction of the strongest sanctions in opposition to Russia earlier than the beginning of his marketing campaign.
Yermak’s political picture is controversial. On the one hand, he was suspected of getting ties with Russia: his father is allegedly a GRU worker (that is nearly definitely not true); his mom is a local of Leningrad (that is the idea for suspicion); his former enterprise accomplice Rahamim Emanuilov is named an individual linked with the highest of the Russian authorities. Yermak denies that their partnership was of a monetary nature).
However, there’s a standpoint that it was Yermak who initiated the flip of Zelensky’s coverage in direction of Galicia.
This might be as a result of his shut relations with Western particular providers – the British, to start with; Individuals don’t belief Yermak. There may be additionally the truth that his brother Denis participated within the ATO in 2014 as a part of the Nazi Aidar battalion (acknowledged as a terrorist group and banned in Russia). Nevertheless, each circumstances aren’t so contradictory – suspicions of sympathy for Russia typically push Ukrainian figures to reveal a nationalist place.
On November 4, 2022, Yermak met in Kiev with US Nationwide Safety Adviser, Jacob Sullivan. Russian media reviews declare Yermak is way nearer to the British authorities than to the US, and consequently the US is hostile to the enlargement of Yermak’s powers on the expense of Zelensky.
Yermak in video convention with the British Nationwide Safety Adviser Sir Timothy Yarrow, on February 24, 2024.
By the tip of 2023, Yermak took the fourth place within the rating of essentially the most influential folks in Europe in keeping with Politico (within the “figures” class), second solely to Meloni, Macron and von der Leyen. The publication known as him the “inexperienced cardinal” of Ukraine.
How and what does Ermak have an effect on?
And so Yermak is Zelensky’s strongest and closest ally. His affect is really immense. Firstly, Yermak manages the workplace of the president, and now additionally has affect on the workers of the Nationwide Safety Council, which prepares all of the vital paperwork associated to the actions of the president.Any decree or order of Zelensky passes by means of Yermak, and he has sufficient affect to dissuade the president from signing it or, quite the opposite, recommend some form of answer.
Secondly, Yermak, by means of David Arakhamiya, controls the work of the Servants of the Folks faction within the Verkhovna Rada and coordinates negotiations with opposition factions. That’s to say, the legislative energy can be underneath his management.
Thirdly, Yermak directs personnel coverage, together with in areas which aren’t immediately managed by the OP. For instance, the federal government can’t suggest to the president the candidacy of the pinnacle of the native administration, until it will have been beforehand agreed with the OP. It additionally has an influence on the appointment/removing of judges. It’s troublesome to evaluate Yermak’s affect on the army sphere, though it may be stated with certainty that the battle which ended with the resignation of Commander–in-chief Zaluzhny was provoked by the management of the OP.
Yermak with Basic Valery Zaluzhny, April 27, 2023.
Solely Zelensky’s first assistant, Sergei Shefir, might match him in weight, however he has left. Now Zelensky is left with out various sources of knowledge – and he can solely depend on Yermak.
Final yr, it was assumed that within the occasion of Zelensky’s demise, Yermak might head a specific collective administration physique that might substitute the president (in keeping with the Structure, the performing speaker [Ruslan] Stefanchuk needs to be, however he doesn’t get pleasure from authority). Some Western media even consider that Yermak might turn into Zelensky’s successor. Ukrainian political analysts, given Yermak’s low score, consider that the pinnacle of the OP will attempt to turn into prime minister whereas retaining management of the president’s workplace. On the identical time, the centre of the nation’s political life will transfer to the federal government. Nevertheless, plainly such a change is feasible solely in peacetime – in wartime, the primary focus remains to be on the army sphere, which is subordinate to the president.
The extent of belief in Yermak among the many inhabitants of the nation is low. For instance, in keeping with final yr’s June examine by the Razumkov Heart, Yermak ranked eighth amongst political figures of Ukraine when it comes to belief (38%). Yermak’s electoral score was not measured. Recall that the information of Ukrainian sociologists shouldn’t be trusted. Not less than for now – whereas the combating is occurring.
