BAD BLOOD: Zelensky's Wife Rejects White House Invite to State of the Union
Alexei Navalny's wife's “potential presence caused discomfort for the Ukrainians," according to a report
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska rejected an invitation to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union because of “a scheduling conflict,” but analysts say the real reason is likely more complicated.
Analysts say the decision not to attend could be because of some bad blood between Kyiv and Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader embraced by Washington as the next George Washington who recently died inside a Russian prison.
Zelenska would have had to sit next to First Lady Jill Biden and Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya. The seating arrangement was seen by some as problematic because Navalny has accurately stated in the past that Crimea belongs to Russia.
The Washington Post, citing people familiar with Kyiv’s deliberations, reported that Navalnaya’s “potential presence caused discomfort for the Ukrainians.”
Though her late husband is widely hailed as an anticorruption icon who risked his life to oppose Putin, Navalny’s legacy in Ukraine is clouded by past statements that Crimea, which Putin annexed in 2014, belonged to Russia.
Even though Navalny’s views later evolved into support for Ukraine’s internationally recognized 1991 borders, many Ukrainians view him as out of step with Kyiv’s goals.
“Evolved” usually means the State Department convinced him.
Barack Obama, the former U.S. president, explained some of the history between Russia and Ukraine in June — stating that there was a reason that Moscow did not have to invade the peninsula.
“There’s a reason there was not an armed invasion of Crimea, because Crimea was full of a lot of Russian speakers and there was some sympathy to the views that Russia was representing.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who would lose in a presidential race if one were held today, promised to retake Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
TRENDPOST: Russia did not attack Crimea. And it would likely still be a part of Ukraine if the US had not orchestrated a coup to overthrow the government of the democratically elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.