© www.tymoshenko.uaYulia Tymoshenko • Kurt Volker
"On the one hand, everything for Tymoshenko is good: she has an excellent approval rating, she is supported by oligarchs, she is in 'contact' with Avakov and even with Lutsenko - practically the entire environment of Poroshenko communicates with Tymoshenko just in case. There is a budget for her electoral campaign, there are necessary structures, there is Kolomoisky's support, and closer towards the elections other oligarchs with high probability will also provide her with media resources. The only problem for Tymoshenko is the United States.
"According to my colleagues, at this present moment Tymoshenko has a certain agreement with Merkel and Macron, but she has no agreement with the leadership of the US. She held some meetings with Trump, but thus the US still doesn't want to place a stake on her, as they consider her to be too independent.
"It is for the same reason that America still hasn't made a decision on who to support at presidential elections in Ukraine. Therefore now, having solved all internal problems in Ukraine, Tymoshenko went to the US. Despite having the No. 1 approval rating in Ukraine, she understands that the opinion of the US will be defining. The US will determine who the president will be, and not the residents of Ukraine.
"As for Poroshenko, he doesn't think that he has a hopeless situation. His 'assistants' on the border verified the lists of the people who left Ukraine. About four million people were counted, which is a decent number of citizens of the country, and if they are added to Poroshenko's approval rating and to 'plant' them in the ballots on their behalf, then he will be able to win presidential elections. It will be simple to do it because the Central Election Commission is created from Poroshenko's people: The CEC will be able to accept the 'necessary' ballots instead of the ones that will be on-site. And it is in such a way that Petro will win elections, especially since earlier it already happened that an additional 20% of votes were added [illegally - ed] for him.
"In addition, Poroshenko has agreements with the mayors of Kharkov, Odessa, and Dnepropetrovsk, who promised him rather good data - according to some sources, about 30% of votes for Poroshenko. For example, the conflict between Kolomoisky and Filatov can also be explained by it: Filatov did not bet on Tymoshenko and left the 'UKROP' party.
"But, despite all manipulations, the final decision concerning the choice of the president of Ukraine, as I already said, will be adopted in the US. Today in Ukraine nobody can internally tell who America will put a stake on. It is precisely for this reason that oligarchs try not to lose ties with Poroshenko, and at the same time build relations with Tymoshenko".
Comment: It seems the race to the bottom may be up for grabs. If it comes down to corruption and deceit, Poroshenko may have the slimy edge. For an eye-opener as to how corrupt the election was in 2014, including what happened to Oleg Tsarev, the author of this article, see: Serious doubts cast on Ukraine election results