The current authorities are preparing a favorable scenario for themselves in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine in 2019, within which they clean out the electoral field from "unsystematic semi-armed street opposition," Director of the Institute of Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov has said.

"The authorities understand perfectly well that amid competitive elections they will not be elected for a second term, therefore they try to make so that the elections are held in a convenient and advantageous format for themselves, in conditions of emergency and controllability," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday, March 23.

According to the political scientist, the latest events in Ukraine fit perfectly into the scenario that he voiced.

"Fitting into this scenario... are all the latest events related to the beginning of the political season, including the enactment of the law on reintegration, expulsion [of former Georgian President and leader of the Movement of New Forces party Mikheil] Saakashvili, and the Ruban-Savchenko case," Karasiov said.

He also said that as part of this scenario "armed street opposition is being cleared," and on the example of the announcement of suspicion of committing a number of serious crimes and the detention of independent MP Nadiia Savchenko, the authorities are trying to "show that there are no untouchables, even if you are a Hero of Ukraine."

"They are removing unsystematic, semi-armed street opposition from the political field. Saakashvili is far away, Savchenko is in jail, [MP Semen] Semenchenko goes for interrogations to the prosecutor's office, and there is no tent camp [near the Verkhovna Rada]," Karasiov said.

Director of the Ukrainian Barometer Sociological Service Viktor Nebozhenko, in turn, said that the recent decline in the rating of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko suggested that the strategy of "the only candidate without a choice" might not work.

"When the political engineers of the Presidential Administration say that he [the presidential candidate] is the only one, and we will make sure that there will be a choice without a choice, they forget that once one president [Leonid Kuchma] burned his fingers. This means anyone, but not this president. This is about the situation with Poroshenko now. His rating can be explained [by the voter's position] - anyone, but not Poroshenko," Nebozhenko said.

According to him, "people just do not want to see the president almost physically, psychologically, despite the fact that he looks great and has become terribly rich."

According to Nebozhenko, if Poroshenko's rating drops to five percent, then "no heavenly forces will manage to repeat his success in 2014."