Assassination Attempt on Zelensky. Hint: It Wasn’t the Russians.

On May 6, a rumor went viral on social media that there had been an assassination attempt on the life of Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud (“MBS”), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and de facto ruler of the Kingdom. It seems that the rumor was fake news and that no assassination ever happened, although it is difficult to be sure of anything that goes on behind the scenes in Riyadh.

But that was not the only assassination news that day. It was also reported that there had been an assassination attempt on the life of Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. That attempt was foiled.

Two top Ukrainian military officers were arrested in connection with the plot. Those officers were colonels said to be working as agents of the Russian FSB (successor to the KGB). Reportedly they planned to kill not only Zelensky but also General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, and Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the civilian intelligence agency (SBU).

Of course, it comes as no surprise that the Ukrainians blamed the Russians for the alleged plot. Here’s the real story, not reported by corporate media: The so-called assassination plot may or may not have been real, but it definitely had nothing to do with the Russians.

Russia is at war with Ukraine. Zelensky is an inexperienced, reckless, and candidly dumb leader. His decisions have been consistently wrong and have led to the deaths of over 500,000 Ukrainian military and disaster on the battlefield.

If you’re in a war, you want the leader of your opponent to be dumb. If Russia assassinated Zelensky, the Ukrainians might replace him with someone halfway competent, which would be a setback for the Russians. So, Russia didn’t do it.

That leaves two other possibilities.

There is an internal power struggle going on in Ukraine. Zelensky’s presidential term ends on May 20^th. Zelensky has declared martial law and has suspended further elections (so much for “fighting for democracy”).

What happens on May 20^th? In Zelensky’s view, he remains as president until further notice. In the view of Zelensky’s rivals, including the former military chief and a former president, Zelensky will be an illegitimate leader. This split is coming to a head.

There may have been an assassination attempt, or it may have been a case of Zelensky attacking his rivals. Don’t be surprised to see a coup d’état in Ukraine in the coming weeks. The arrests last week may simply have been a case of Zelensky trying to imprison his rivals before they can overthrow him.

In short, this “assassination” attempt had everything to do with an internal power struggle and nothing to do with Russia. Both assassination stories were fake news. But the power struggle in Kiev is all too real.

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