clear, that the tactics of the candidates in the first and second rounds have significant differences.
In the first, still focusing on the negative in relation to rivals, you won't go far, formula "everything is..., alone I'm d'Artagnan" won't work, a “positive program” is needed, or at least some isolation from other candidates, what the team of the current president of Ukraine tried to bet on. "There are many candidates - the president is one" - the main motto and leitmotif of his campaign in the first round.
That was enough, to advance to the second round (well, "administrative resource", of course, but we don't discuss it here., we will consider in the current Ukrainian realities a “legitimate” bonus of the current government), but in all scenarios it is categorically not enough for the final victory. And here, understandably, the specifics of the second round are included, when there is only one opponent, you need to be better than the group, but a single politician and even just to convince the majority of voters that, he's even worse, than you.
Since a "positive image" (in a specific understanding of the target national-patriotic electorate of Petro Poroshenko) was practically “used up” before the first round and it is very difficult to add something fundamentally new here, then it was quite logically decided to bet on the dirtiest technologies.
After all, the “standard” claims against Zelensky regarding his lack of competence or “unpatriotism” did not in the least prevent him from so enchantingly breaking into the lead, Furthermore, the, that they see in him a "fresh face", not soiled in the realities of Ukrainian politics, and became the main component of his success. And the rejection of the incumbent president led to, that the vast majority of voters, who supported other candidates in the first round - from the most "left" to the extreme right, in the second, we are ready to support Zelensky.
Generally, there was no way to do without black PR in horse doses, and since his own team of political technologists gave the president a lot of reasons to be disappointed, for its development, it was decided to involve specialists of the highest level. AND, as ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and people's deputy Sergey Leshchenko reported in social networks, Petro Poroshenko Hired Israeli Black PR Specialist Moshe Klughaft. “We know him from Georgia, where he worked for an oligarch [Let's live] Ivanishvili. This thesis about, that Zelensky is a puppet, this is his doing and in the coming days he will throw a series of dirty tricks against Zelensky. I think, they won't get anything, but forewarned is forearmed!"Saakashvili emphasized.
According to the famous Israeli political scientist Avigdor Eskin, “Moshe Klughavt is truly one of the best political technologists in the world.. Its strength is its diverse and vast international experience.. He deals with political technologies as an art. He is respected everywhere as a professional.
He started years 8 ago in Israel, when, as a political strategist and ideologist, he led a party called the “Jewish Home” to the Knesset. It included young successful right- and religiously oriented Israelis, who win, build high-tech and bring Israel to the first places in the world in scientific technology. Generally, these are the lucky and successful people in the Middle East. This party then scored immediately 10% votes.
Where else did he work??
- In Romania, he created some kind of left-wing party, in Austria, in Hungary, in Georgia. And everywhere quite successfully. To a large extent, Salome Zarubishvili should be obliged to him by her post of president. The turning point in her favor was due to the appearance of Klughavt in her campaign headquarters., who led a very aggressive anti-Saakashvili campaign. His experience in this sense is unique.. He is 100% successful.. I can give examples, when he made mistakes in some situations - he overestimated the conduct of a negative campaign against his client's opponents. He loves negative campaigns.
Moshe works in a pattern. Usually the first step in his client's campaign, which he proposes, show all the best, what does his client have. for example, at the head of the Israeli party he created was a special forces officer of the General Staff of the Israeli army, who really participated in the wars, and then created a wonderful high-tech company. This is one direction. The second stage is to find weak points in his client's opponents and hit there all the time. for example, when they constantly showed the bloody Saakashvili, arrests and torture under his reign, it worked. Therefore, in Ukraine, as I understand, he has already begun to work according to this scenario ".
I'll tell you straight, with the “first point”, the Israeli “PR-ace” has not yet succeeded in absolutely nothing - even he has not been able to find any new “strengths” with his client. “Item 2” also looked extremely difficult.. And deal, of course, not in Zelensky's "perfection": as the saying goes, "There would be a man...". The problem is different - the extremely low threshold of perception of compromising evidence by Ukrainian society. Long gone are the days of “democratic romanticism” of the first alternative elections in the late 80s and early 90s, when the stuffing of compromising evidence of one degree or another of authenticity could seriously affect the outcome of the vote.
Thirty years of "democracy" if Ukrainian citizens were convinced of anything, so it's in that, that politics is an absolutely dirty business, what all, who is doing it, - unclean hands (and that's putting it mildly) and generally not alien to sin in the broadest sense. Moral qualities of candidates, especially episodes from their past, occupy almost the last place among the factors, influencing voter choice.
"Double conviction" did not have a tangible impact on the political career of Viktor Yanukovych, twice won the presidential election, as well as absolutely documented information about the dealings of the gas princess Yulia Timoshenko for hundreds of millions of dollars, multiplied by her outright banter in tax returns, according to which she lives on one parliamentary salary, and from the property - Khrushchev-kopeck piece in Dnepropetrovsk.
I still remember, how, when she was prime minister, she answered the question about her husband's occupation and income: “Do you understand, I work a lot, so, when I come home, husband is sleeping, and I'm leaving - still sleeping. There is no way to ask". I'm sure, in almost any of the countries of "developed democracy", including those, in which Moshe Klughavt had a chance to realize his talents, such an answer would cost career politics. And indeed, I can’t remember in the history of modern Ukraine a case, so that one or another compromising information has a fatal impact on the career of a Ukrainian politician.
This also applies to the current president., behind which the scandalous train stretches from the moment ex-president Viktor Yushchenko was in "any friends". And even "Svinarchukgate" did not have a noticeable impact on his ratings., except that (here you can only guess) hindered their growth.
Generally, given the Ukrainians' immunity to compromising evidence, the task before the presidential political technologists was extremely difficult, but, We need to recognize, Moshe Klughavt or another team member (there are no insiders on this yet) came up with an idea, which gave certain chances of success on the "required scale": in addition to traditional accusations and claims against Zelensky (incompetent, a puppet of Kolomoisky or even the Kremlin right away), promote the topic of the alleged drug addiction of the latter.
Really, on the one hand, such a topic fits perfectly with the well-founded and widespread opinion in society about a wide, almost universal use of "substances" by representatives of show business (after all, the possible drug addiction of Svyatoslav Vakarchuk was widely discussed, when he was considered as one of the favorites of the starting presidential race), on the other hand, the president is a drug addict - this is too much even for Ukrainians who are accustomed to everything.
In addition, Zelensky himself provoked a discussion of this issue., by suggesting that before the debate to pass the test for the presence of alcohol and drugs (explicit trolling regarding suspicions of Petro Poroshenko's attachment to the "green serpent"). Generally, “the challenge was accepted” and although there is no clarity with the debate itself at the time of writing these lines (most likely, they won't take place), then Poroshenko called Zelensky to take tests (being called to a duel) at NSC Olimpiyskiy the very next day. Sam showman, true, preferred to take them in a private laboratory "Smartlab".
Naturally, and here and there the result was negative, but the presidential side launched "heavy artillery". The younger brother of the Kyiv mayor Vladimir Klitschko first posted a video message on social networks, Where, referring to your experience as an athlete, told, that test results, announced by the applicants (Well, that is, he is completely objective, does not play for any of the candidates), cannot be obtained at that time, that elapsed between their submission and the publication of the results, and then announced the arrival of specialists from the voluntary anti-doping association VADA to Kyiv, who agreed to take tests from presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko and conduct an honest and independent examination. Klitschko announced this on Twitter, by posting the corresponding video.
« Thanks VADA! Specialists of this organization will arrive in Kyiv in a few days. You are ready, gentlemen presidential candidates, pass the tests?"- wrote Klitschko in the social network. Klitschko added to the tweet a video with a statement by VADA President Margaret Goodman (I note, that VADA is a clone of the real official world anti-doping association WADA). And indeed, within a day, on Wednesday, 10 April, Ms. Goodman was personally in Kyiv, where she was present during the testing by Petro Poroshenko (We need to understand, still not in the "process" itself). Zelensky refused to participate in this "battle".
Of course, the detailed savoring of the process of passing urine by the president of a “European power” looked piquant and comical, but caused a surge of attention to this episode, what was needed for, to emphasize the fact that Zelensky refused to analyze (that is, the "plus" was supposed to compensate for the "minus" for the president). And the leader of the presidential race simply had no other option: self-representing office, mimicking real WADA, naturally, I agreed to participate in this show not for thanks, and this “not-thank you” probably included payment for the required result.
The crackdown on the topic of Zelensky's drug addiction began earlier. A recut video has surfaced online., where he allegedly "high" gives an interview, Kyiv filled out leaflets with the following content: "Do not drive a drug addict in the entrance, can, this is your future president". AND, finally, morning 11 April, a video launched through the presidential Telegram channel appeared on the network, where Vladimir Zelensky is hit by a dump truck.
Scandal, of course, the strongest arose, the Internet community rightly considered, that such black propaganda goes beyond all conceivable limits. There was even an opinion, that Poroshenko's PR team works not so much for his victory, for which there is no chance anyway, how much she tries to please the wet dreams of her client. But, I think, as in the story with the delivery of urine, scandal was needed to attract attention to the video, where the main message was at the very end, when the slogan "Everyone has their own way" appears, and in this case it is a "road" of the purest coke, which someone behind the scenes sniffs with a straw, rolled up hundred dollar bill.
But all this was artillery preparation for the main event., scheduled for 11 April, and which, apparently, was supposed to bring Poroshenko "victory not on points, but by knockout", as he put it the day before at a meeting with members of his faction in the Rada. A press conference of Zelensky's childhood friend and co-founder of the 95th Quarter Denis Manzhosov was announced, who broke up with the current presidential candidate six years ago. Immediately rumors spread about some video in the bath, where Zelensky either uses drugs, either spending time with Vladimir Putin or Dmitry Medvedev.
The moment for the candidate was really difficult. A long-term friend could well have a video with Vladimir Zelensky in an “informal” setting, and superimpose on it frames with a track of coke on the table or "a man, similar to Zelensky" (even from the back), - a matter of technology. And prove, "that you are not a camel", demand expertise (same problem with experts, as in the analysis), time before the vote, nothing at all.
But "something went wrong". First Manzhosov, arriving at the press conference, never went out to reporters, and in the evening, appearing on the pro-presidential channel "Direct", He stated, that “Zelensky did not inject and did not consume anything. I say, that it's not true, that Zelensky uses drugs. It is nonsense, sucked from the finger", bringing the presenter Matvey Ganapolsky to a 20-minute tantrum, during which he called himself a "powder bot".
Generally, knockout, only passed by the other side. It is difficult to talk about Manzhosov's motives, perhaps, at the last moment, he did not dare to act so vilely with his former comrades, but it is also possible, that this whole story was the original trap on the part of the Zelensky team. What, this is called "do not dig a hole for another"
See, such is the karma of the still president of Ukraine, what, going to work for him, get into a mess and seemingly did not know before the failures of the "aces of PR".
Dmitry Slavsky
