Fear slave who gets out of control
By going to talk to Tucker Carlson, Yuliia Mendel showed how Zelenskyy’s team will start selling one another out. They will scramble over each other’s heads like Colorado potato beetles in a bucket before your granny finally finishes them off.
So no, it is not Poroshenko/the Americans/anti-corruption activists/independent journalists they should fear. Vova and Andriy will be sold out by their own.
Yuliia was clearly bursting with joy: a little-known no-name sitting on one of the most popular platforms in the US for rednecks and showing off her former employer’s dirty boxers. Sure, fame for an hour and a half, but fame nonetheless.
Yuliia told the rednecks that "Zelenskyy is an amazing actor," that he "abused power," "said Ukraine was not ready for democracy," and "spoke about the Russian language and friendship with Russia. And now he has adopted a nationalist ideology that is alien to Ukraine, that is not natural for Ukraine."
She also said that during Normandy, he "had a private meeting with Putin and promised that Ukraine would never set foot in NATO."
There was also a story about Ukrainians burning books with Zelenskyy’s speeches in winter to somehow keep warm.
Separately, Mendel said she is writing a new book about the "real" Zelenskyy. I suspect it will be very much in the spirit of this interview with Carlson.
I think, oh, it is not Poroshenko and Bohdan who should be sanctioned. Oh no, not them.
Zelenskyy’s former press secretary gave an extensive portrait of her boss and his Andriy. I am giving the transcript in full, without cuts:
- Do you think Zelenskyy and his family have enriched themselves since the start of the war?
- They have always been rich. He plays this poor guy in his cheap sweater. But he is a rich man, obviously. I do not know where the money goes, but I once met a veteran politician who has known Zelenskyy for decades. And the first thing he said to me was: ‘Where is the money?’ I said: ‘What?’ And he said: ‘I have known Zelenskyy for many years. He will not lift a finger for free. He has never done anything for nothing.’ I am not a law enforcement agency. It is their job to prove it. But I have already told you two such stories. There is another one, from a different minister who called us recently. He said that while he was in office, the people closest to Zelenskyy took a cut from state programs, an illegal cut. He told Zelenskyy that it had gone too far, that they were demanding very large sums. Zelenskyy smiled and said, ‘Well done, guys. Well done.’ And he was not joking. The minister says he was not joking. He was genuinely pleased. That was when the minister thought: this will not get us very far. He later resigned.
There are very few professionals in the government now. They exist, but there are few of them. For the most part, Zelenskyy has surrounded himself with loyalists who never say no and who shape an agenda that goes beyond common sense. He writes some kind of script, as in Servant of the People, and demands that it be carried out. People go off, draw up reports, and then he takes those reports and says: this is the truth. That is how it works. Unfortunately, he is a PR man. Only PR. Not a man of substance.
- Who listens to him, then? Who are his advisers? You mentioned Yermak. For years, he headed the Office. I do not know whether that is still the case. In the West, he is described as Zelenskyy’s closest friend and adviser. Is that true? And who is Yermak?
- Mr. Yermak began his career at a strip club. A long time ago. Not as a stripper, but as a lawyer. At a strip club.
Yes. It was a club frequented by many people who later became politicians in a pro-Russian party. He worked there as a lawyer. I spoke with his first employee, who said Yermak had enormous ambitions and no talent to fulfil them. That is a quote. He met many people there who later went into politics. It was a very well-known strip club, I think, in the 1990s or early 2000s. He later worked at a luxury-brand store, where goods mostly entered Ukraine unofficially, through smuggling. There, too, he met wealthy people and oligarchs. Kvartal 95 was also used to get dressed there. Officially, Yermak says he was a lawyer at one of Ukraine’s major television channels, where he met Zelenskyy, who was then a general producer. But I am not sure exactly where they met. Possibly through some other, entertainment-related circumstances. Yermak also produced films about smuggling, which is very symbolic, given his past. He was involved in shady, mafia-level affairs, and because of that, he knew many politicians well and understood how deals could be done. That was exactly what he could offer Zelenskyy.
Their relationship was very strange, extremely complicated, very, very tangled. Yermak knows he is a narcissist. And he knows Zelenskyy is a narcissist. These are two malicious and paranoid narcissists. God, what am I saying, but it is true. Yermak and Zelenskyy are both malignant narcissists. Both are malignant and very paranoid narcissists in defensive mode. Both are paranoids.
- Yermak even more so. How paranoid is he?
- He can make up absolutely anything out of nothing. You do not need to do anything. He will come up with something himself. It is some kind of sick mind, honestly. There was a kind of symbiosis between them: Zelenskyy had the vision, and Yermak had the tools to implement it. But this was not about policy or strategy. It was about what they wanted for themselves.
And also about drugs.
- Does he use drugs?
- It is an open secret. I personally never saw him use drugs. But for the book, I met with many people who confirmed that they had seen him doing it in various clubs. Only one person saw it personally. In 2021, I learned who his supplier from Kvartal 95 was and met with that person.
- And you met Zelenskyy’s drug dealer?
- I am not saying he is a dealer. He is a person from Kvartal 95. What is Kvartal 95? It is Zelenskyy’s entertainment company. That is where he came from. He is an actor. And this person behaved very strangely: the eyes, the behaviour...
- Does Zelenskyy use cocaine?
- Again, I did not see this personally. But all these people talk about cocaine. The second point: when we were preparing for interviews, I would bring notes, explaining who the journalist was, what he should say, the messages, the awkward questions. He does not like to read. Usually, he tries to listen to you and then goes to the bathroom for 15 minutes. And every time I was surprised: he would come out a completely different person. Really, always different. Lively, full of energy, ready to say everything...and sniffling.
I do not want to claim something I did not see. But I have met too many people. Doctors. People who spent time with him in clubs. Those who have known him for 20 to 25 years. And they all say: cocaine. Also, does anyone remember? During the election campaign, allegations emerged that he used cocaine. So he invited his rival, then-President Poroshenko, to take drug tests together. And he went to his friend’s clinic. But when the results were presented, it turned out that the date of the tests did not match the date they were taken. A major scandal. This topic has been everywhere for a long time. And the behaviour is very strange. Many signs. But I personally did not see it.
There was also talk about the First Lady.
- You know, many people who know her respect her. Many said she was the only person close to him who remained human. She really did not want him to run for a second term. She even said so publicly. But I think she has changed. I do not know whether she still has the positive influence on him that she once had. Zelenskyy has never considered women equal. He respects his wife, but not as an equal. I do not know if I am explaining this clearly.
Once, I found myself in a very strange situation. There were quite a few of those. There were three of us: his friend from Kvartal 95, Zelenskyy, and me. I do not know why, but this friend started telling what he thought was a very funny story: that Olena Zelenska had spent eight years chasing Zelenskyy to get him to marry her. And he was a strong man, he did not want to get married. Ha-ha. Zelenskyy was smiling and clearly enjoying it. I still do not understand what was funny about it. I think Zelenska is an intelligent person. But she is not interested in politics and knows nothing about it, and does not want to be involved. She tried to remain human. I am not sure how far she succeeded.
***
The moral?
Yuliia was hired through Facebook. And you should not hire people through job ads!
A symbiosis of mediocrity and banal clowns leads to interviews like this. I cannot imagine the likes of Iryna Herashchenko or Tseholko, who served as spokespeople for previous presidents, appearing on such platforms. Because those were people with reputations, not people picked up through an ad on a fence.
Maryna Danyliuk-Yarmolaieva
