The below is not a Russian state media headline. 

Ironically on the very day that the Biden administration declared a global war on Russian state media and pro-Moscow 'influence campaigns', Politico published a rare piece directly going after President Zelensky, saying he's making terrible decisions and increasingly acting like an autocrat and power-hungry dictator. 

Of course, earlier in the war if any non-mainstream publication dared to issue similar warnings about what's really going on in Kiev, they were immediately put on the receiving end of severe pushback complete with loud denunciations of being 'pro-Kremlin' and somehow standing against NATO and democracy etc. etc. etc...

But now in mid-September 2024 here is no other than the ultra-establishment Politico bluntly highlighting Zelensky's "autocratic way of governing" while calling him "largely unaccountable" as he accrues an unprecedented level of power:

And unfortunately, the reshuffle is doing nothing to ease long-standing worries about Zelenskyy’s highly personalized and, according to some, autocratic way of governing — including his dependence on a clam-like inner circle of trusted friends and advisers within the presidential administration.

Accruing power and largely unaccountable, some of these individuals are unpaid and some have even been the focus of past graft probes.

Corruption in Ukraine? you don't say...

These were things that only a short while ago you weren't allowed to speak in public discourse, and when MSM publications did quietly take on the subject they typically cast US-backed Zelensky as some kind of crime-fighting anti-corruption hero who was going to clean the place up. It was the comforting narrative that the beltway echo chamber told itself while shoveling tens of billions of taxpayer money into Kiev's coffers.

Politico further comments on how Zelensky has recently booted even officials who were highly trusted and favored by the West: "Kuleba’s departure in particular is seen as yet another example of how Zelenskyy’s coterie ejects outliers who are ready to question and challenge," the publication writes.

"It’s in line with the earlier dismissal of armed forces commander General Valery Zaluzhny, who had clashed with Zelenskyy over war strategy and the need to mobilize many more to fight," the report continues. "Zaluzhny’s high favorability ratings didn’t endear him to a watchful and jealous presidential administration either."

But again, the ultimate irony in all this is that currently the world is being berated and lectured by a Biden administration which claims that if you ever say negative things about Ukraine or Zelensky, or anything so much as perceived as not being 'fully supportive' of the Zelensky government... then you must be some kind of paid Kremlin agent.

Oops... more from Politico: "Zelenskyy’s defenders say war requires a firm hand, and there’s no time for democratic niceties when battling a Russian autocrat who wants to erase Ukraine and doesn’t believe it should exist as a state. But while agreeing that the clamor of democracy shouldn’t be allowed to adversely affect Ukraine’s defense, Zelenskyy’s critics note that other wartime leaders took a markedly different approach." And of course, it's well known that Zelensky has canceled all future elections on an indefinite basis, in the name of martial law.

When the gatekeepers themselves begin to turn on the narrative, it's clear Washington has lost the plot. Perhaps that's why the US administration has begun to look more desperate, for example with its newly announced global war on RT News.