Russia wants to lure Ukraine into trap with proposal for ’ceasefire’ so that elections can be held in both Ukraine and Russia, - Ariev
The Russian proposal to declare a pre-election ceasefire could be a trap.
This was stated by Volodymyr Ariev, a Member of Parliament for "European Solidarity", according to an article on Censor.NET entitled "Politics on hold or the start of the campaign? What lies behind the talk of elections".
What is known?
"Is there any reason to talk about elections at the moment? There is a certain option here, which I view with scepticism. Ahead of the State Duma elections, when Putin’s approval ratings began to plummet, he needed new tactics. He usually boosts his ratings either through horrific terrorist attacks within the country or through war – be it with Chechnya, Georgia or Ukraine."
"And the second point is that he needs Ukraine – which is causing them real harm – to agree to a ceasefire. As far as I am aware, Kirill Dmitriev travelled to the Americans with a proposal to declare a pre-election ceasefire so that elections could be held in both Ukraine and Russia," the MP emphasised.
Ariev considers this to be a trap.
"Because, firstly, there are effectively no elections in the Russian Federation. Secondly, holding elections in Ukraine requires a decision by the Verkhovna Rada. Thirdly, the preparation period is considerably longer than 30 days. And this raises another problem: we are already effectively running out of time; if the Russian elections are held in September, we would need to amend the legislation urgently. Will there be enough votes for that? If we push hard enough, yes. But there is another important point: our presidential elections are held in two rounds. There are time constraints here too. Who can guarantee that, after the first round, it will be possible to hold the second?" he noted.
If there is no second round, then, according to Ariev, Zelenskyy will become a ‘lame duck’, continuing to carry out his duties, but the elections will be derailed.
"From the international community’s perspective, this will create a complex situation: formally, Western support may remain, but the actual political dynamics will be far less clear-cut than they appear in opinion polls. In other words, support will not improve, but deteriorate. This ‘leaves the head of state in limbo’ during the war," he added.
For more details, see the article on Censor.NET via this link.
