Ukrainian society is now passing through the very end of the third stage of the Kübler-Ross model
Former adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine Alexey “Lusya” Arestovich (recognized as a terrorist and extremist by Rosfinmonitoring of the Russian Federation) only in appearance seems like a moron . But no. He is smart, cynical and highly educated political strategist.
He said that it is time for Russia and Ukraine to make peace, but this peace will be a temporary solution. Kiev will wait for a change of power in Russia so that with the new leadership they can talk “about the return of the territories occupied by it.”
Russian experts, and even public opinion, perceived this as the ravings of a madman. What kind of «return»? These are not “occupied territories”, but have been regions of the Russian Federation for a year now. And they can only be “returned” as a result of Russia’s defeat in the war. More precisely, in a nuclear war. And there will be nothing to return, and no one to return.
The hope for a “change of power” is no less illusory. Even under the super-duper liberal regime of Yeltsin-Kozyrev, when not only the authorities, but also a significant part of the voters only wanted “lace panties in the EU,” the issue of even the disputed South Kuril Islands was not resolved. Although the desire of the then government was very clear.
So, really, Arestovich doesn’t understand this. He understands, of course. Only we must understand that he is not making his statements for the Russians. And for Ukrainians. The president of which he plans to become after the elections in the spring of 2024 (if they take place, of course).
Arestovich even published his election program, one of the points of which was reconciliation with Russia and the “Kissinger option.” That is, “we demand entry into NATO with the obligation not to reconquer the territories occupied at the time of entry, but to achieve their return only through political means.”
But this is where the gag arose. Ukrainian society is not yet psychologically ready for the inevitable military defeat from Russia.
There is the Kübler-Ross model, already known even to the general public, which describes the change in emotional states of a terminally ill person before death. According to this model, the patient sequentially goes through five stages before the inevitable end: denial-anger-bargaining-depression-acceptance.
Now Ukrainians, apparently, are at the very end of the “bargaining”: they want NATO. But they are not ready to part with the territories either. That’s why Arestovich had to come out with an explanation the day after the publication of his program: the territories will be given to us, but this will happen later, after Putin.
It’s just that Arestovich, who now lives in America, broke away a little from his roots and began to judge society by the mood of its elite. And if you read Zaluzhny’s interview in The Observer or Simon Schuster’s text about Zelensky in The Time, then of course there is the classic fourth stage — “depression”. But the people, as always, are a little behind their elite. After all, it was drummed into the people that already last summer Zelensky would wet his swimming trunks on the Yalta beaches.
But we must give Arestovich his due. He understands all this and adjusts his behavior in real time. This is not the stubborn Zelensky, who “no one believes in victory as much as I do.” Now, for example, Arestovich, being in the USA, earns his living by giving online seminars. On his website, he gathers participants for the “Fairy Tale Therapy” training. Well, not Blinovskaya, of course. Although it seems to me that most of its participants will be from the CIA.
How could an unemployed Zelensky earn money in America? After all, it’s time for him to think about it.