Was Boris Johnson Zelensky’s Primary Handler?
And what this could mean for Zelensky's fate
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
-Jesus
Was Boris Johnson Zelensky’s primary handler?
Yesterday on The Duran, Alex Christoforou made this keen conjecture in light of President Zelensky’s recent failure to fire his close associates for “treason.”
After the initial report of this senior-level firing, one of Zelensky’s advisors had to backtrack and say the treasonous individuals had only been suspended pending investigation.
The Duran hosts believe this failure on Zelensky’s part indicates he’s bleeding political clout.
One of the individuals suspended was the head of the SBU and Zelensky’s childhood friend, which is a pretty cold move. This BBC report says the apparent scale of Russian infiltration of the SBU would shock Ukrainians.
It certainly doesn’t shock me. Spies have been leaking sensitive SBU materials on Telegram for all to see since the invasion began. Oops.
Christoforou hypothesized that Zelensky’s main benefactor/handler/liaison with the West — however you want to call it — was Boris Johnson, and now that Boris is out as Prime Minister of Great Britain, Zelensky no longer has his primary Western supporter holding a position of power.
It makes a lot of sense. Boris has been the most ardent and outspoken supporter of Zelensky and the Ukraine project from the jump. On this substack I mentioned some months back that it was Boris who was one of the first to comment on the elementary school shelling in the Donbas (in which Boris totally botched his “false flag” commentary). It turned out to be a prelude to war, which in my opinion had been the West’s goal all along and to which Boris merrily hitched his wagon and couldn’t help but giddily egg it on.
The way I view Boris is that he was getting briefings about what the security state wanted to have happen, and he was like an excited kindergartener unable to withhold embarrassing facts about his parents that they’d rather keep secret.
I would not be surprised if Christoforou is correct about Boris, and if he is, Zelensky is in trouble.
Alexander Mercouris opined in the episode about South Vietnam’s leader who was taken out by a U.S.-backed coup in the 60s as the war raged on and how that removal actually further weakened the South instead of weeding out the weakness and instilling strength. It was like replacing a struggling starting quarterback at halftime to disastrous results.
The same mindset in Kiev may be in play. They see Zelensky as weak, or even as a disaster, and they believe replacing him will benefit the nation’s war efforts. If it’s anything like Vietnam, such a gambit may backfire.
Zelensky has never been as strong a leader as the West has painted him to be. He famously let the Nazi Azov battalion walk all over him when he tried to get them to leave the Donbas. He’s now losing hundreds of soldiers a day and sending Kraken units — basically the SS of Ukraine — to the front lines.
And, there are more than a few who believe Zelensky is a heavy drug user.
But the exit of Boris, as opposed to Zelensky’s inherent weakness and corruption, may speak more deeply to the timing of the current troubles in Zelensky’s administration. And as I reflect on narrative spinning over the past few months, it’s been British Military Intelligence that has been the primary source of regime talking points and tell-all intrigue, as I only unwittingly and tangentially cobbled together in some of my previous posts.
And if you’ll recall, it was the terrorist-turned-national-hero Stepan Bandera who was directly supported after WWII by British intelligence. The British footprint in Ukraine cannot be underestimated.
With that apparatus gone or vying for a change in leadership, do not be surprised if Zelensky himself is shown the door in the very near future.