Will an Ukrainian comedian become the next president?

[pieter]

Gepubliceerd op 7 apr. 2019

Ukraine’s second presidential election since the 2014 revolution is an unlikely race - between the current president, Petro Poroshenko and a popular TV star, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Poroshenko’s star has faded considerably five years after he took office. Many voters are frustrated at the slow pace of reforms, a stagnant economy, and the ongoing war with Russia in the east which has seen 13,000 fatalities.

‘I don’t feel any kind of euphoria,’ Poroshenko told reporters at a press conference after the exit poll figures were announced on Sunday evening. ‘I critically and soberly understand the signal that society gave today.’

And he might have an uphill battle to stay in office - currently, the run-off on April 21 is Zelensky’s to lose. The comedian and actor has led almost every opinion poll since he announced his candidacy on New Year’s Eve.

Zelensky has zero political experience, but he’s familiar with being President - because he plays one in a popular TV comedy show, Servant of the People.

That inexperience hasn’t put voters off though.

‘We need a person who can take the complete mess we have, find something to monetize, and grow our economy,’ Mikhail Fedorov told VICE News at Zelensky’s digital campaign hub. Mikhail Fedorov left his IT consultancy job to run Zelensky’s all-important online campaign. ‘It doesn't matter whether he has a political background or something academic, or whatever. I think the fact that he doesn't have political experience is actually a plus.’

Mikhail took part in the protests in 2014 - back then, he voted for Poroshenko, a decision he now regrets.

‘My mom's salary is only enough to pay for her utilities. For the older generation, everything got much worse - our grandparents can't pay their bills.’

It’s hard to see Zelensky’s star fading - but his relationship with oligarch Igor Kolomoisky could be his undoing. The day before the first round, 1+1 - which Kolomoisky owns - filled its schedule with back-to-back shows by the comedian and actor. But Zelensky dismisses the claims he’s just a puppet.

‘First of all, nobody finances our shows,’ he told VICE News. ‘We produce everything at our expense and then sell to the TV channel 1+1. That is important.’

VICE News met Zelensky backstage at a taping of his popular comedy sketch show, League of Laughter just days before the first vote. ‘I would put corruption to the top of the problems to tackle and I would also want to stop the Donbass war because we don't want our people to perish any more.’ Scant on further detail, Zelensky still bristled at the idea he’s thin on strategy. ‘The Donbass war is not a vague thing. This is a particular problem that applies to us, Ukrainians, most of all. Because Ukrainians die and it is very painful.’ One thing the showman is clear on, he’s ready to take office: ‘why not?’ he laughs.

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Volodymyr Zelensky



Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician, screenwriter, actor and director of Ukrainian film studio Kvartal 95 [he; ru; uk]. Zelensky is one of the leading candidates in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.Six months before he announced his candidacy on 31 December 2018, he was already one of the frontrunners in opinion polls for the election. Zelensky played the role of President of Ukraine in the hugely popular 2015 television series Servant of the People. The political party Servant of the People was created in March 2018 by people from the TV production company Kvartal 95 who also created the TV series of the same name.

Early life

Zelensky was born 25 January 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) to Jewish parents. His father Oleksandr Zelensky is a professor who heads an academic department of cybernetics and computing hardware at the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics, his mother Rimma Zelenska used to work as an engineer. Before entering grammar school he lived for four years in Mongolia in the city of Erdenet where his father worked.

Zelensky studied law at the Kyiv National Economic University department in his native Kryvyi Rih, but he hasn’t worked professionally in the legal field.

Entertainment career

At age 17, he joined the local KVN team (a comedy competition) and was soon invited to join the united Ukrainian team "Zaporizhia-Kryvyi Rih-Transit" which performed in the KVN's Major League and eventually won in 1997. That same year, he created and headed the Kvartal 95 team which later transformed into the comedy outfit Kvartal 95. From 1998 to 2003, Kvartal 95 performed in the Major League and the highest open Ukrainian league of KVN, the team members spent a lot of the time in Moscow and constantly toured around post-Soviet countries. In 2003, Kvartal 95 started producing TV shows for the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, and in 2005 the team moved to fellow Ukrainian TV channel Inter.

Following Zelensky's 2006 participation in the Ukrainian version of Dancing with the Stars, he became a household name in Ukraine.

In 2008, he starred in the feature film Love in the Big City, and its sequel, Love in the Big City 2. Zelensky continued his movie career with the film Office Romance. Our Time in 2011 and with Rzhevsky Versus Napoleon in 2012. Love in the Big City 3 was released in January 2014. Zelensky also played the leading role in the 2012 film 8 First Dates and in sequels which were produced in 2015 and 2016.


Zelensky was a member of the board and the general producer of the TV channel Inter from 2010 to 2012.

After the Ukrainian media had reported that during the War in Donbass Zelensky's Kvartal 95 had donated 1 million hryvnias to the Ukrainian army, Russian politicians and artists petitioned for a ban on his works in Russia. Zelensky, however, spoke out against the intention of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture to ban Russian artists from Ukraine.

Kvartal 95 performance in 2018

In 2015, Zelensky became the star of the popular television series Servant of the People, in which he plays the role of the President of Ukraine.[1] In the series, Zelensky's character is a thirty-something high school history teacher who wins the presidential election after a viral video shows him ranting against government corruption in Ukraine.

Zelensky has worked mostly in Russian. His first role in the Ukrainian language was to be the romantic comedy "I, You, He, She [uk]", which appeared on the screens of Ukraine in December 2018. The first version of the script was written in Ukrainian. However, for the Lithuanian Agnė Grudytė actress the script was translated into Russian. Then movie was dubbed into Ukrainian.

In December 2018, Zelensky stated that "Kvartal 95" had made its last movie with its legal Russian subsidiary in 2012 and that its office in Moscow had been closed in 2014. In January 2019 he said that he still has shared commercial interests with Russian companies, but only as a co-owner of a Cyprus-registered firm "Green Family LTD" that, in turn, owns the Russian film making company Grin Films. Zelensky also claimed he had no role in Grin Films successful application for a grant from the Russian Ministry of Culture.



Political career

Zelensky supported the 2013-2014 Euromaidan movement. During the War in Donbass, he actively supported the Ukrainian army.

In August 2014, Zelensky spoke out against the intention of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture to ban Russian artists from Ukraine. Since 2015, Ukraine has banned Russian artists and other Russian works of culture from entering Ukraine. In 2018, the romantic comedy Love in the Big City 2 starring Zelensky was banned in Ukraine.

The political party Servant of the People was created in March 2018 by people from the TV production company Kvartal 95, which also created the TV series of the same name.

In a March 2019 interview with Der Spiegel, Zelensky stated he went into politics to restore trust in politicians and that he wanted "to bring professional, decent people to power" and "would really like to change the mood and timbre of the political establishment, as much as possible."



Presidential campaign

Six months before he announced his candidacy for the Ukrainian Presidential Election in 2019 on 31 December 2018, Zelensky was already one of the frontrunners in opinion polls.

After months of ambiguous responses, during the Kvartal 95 new year's eve evening show on the TV channel 1+1 he live announced his candidacy for the 2019 Presidential election. During the election campaign Zelensky continued to tour with Kvartal 95.

The team of political advisers of Zelensky includes former Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk, former Economic Development and Trade minister Aivaras Abromavičius and anti-corruption campaigner Sergii Leshchenko.


96,16% of ballots processed: Zelensky 30,22%, Poroshenko 15,93, Tymoshenko 13,39

Political positions

During his presidential campaign, Zelensky said that he would like Ukraine to become a member of the European Union and NATO; but he wants the Ukrainian voters to decide on Ukrainian membership (of these two organisations) in referendums. At the same time, he believed that the Ukrainian people had already chosen "eurointegration". The 2019 presidential election program of Zelensky claimed that Ukrainian NATO membership is "the choice of the Maidan and the course that is enshrined in the Constitution, in addition, it is an instrument for strengthening our defense capability." The program stated that Ukraine should set the goal to apply for a NATO Membership Action Plan in 2024. The program also states that Zelensky "will do everything to ensure" that Ukraine can apply for European Union membership in 2024.



Zelensky promised that his first bill "On People's Power" will provide a mechanism for referendums. He also promised bills to fight corruption, including removal of immunity from the president of the country, members of the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) and judges, a law about impeachment, reform of election laws, and providing efficient trial by jury. He promised to bring the salary for military personnel "to the level of NATO standards".

Zelensky stated that as President he would develop the economy and attract investment in Ukraine through "a restart of the judicial system" and restoring confidence in the state. He also proposed a tax amnesty and a 5% flat tax for big business which could be increased "in dialogue with them and if everyone will agree." According to Zelensky, if people would notice that his new government "works honestly from the first day", they would start paying their taxes.

In an interview in December 2018, Zelensky stated that as President he would try to end the ongoing War in Donbass by negotiating with Russia. Since he considered the leaders of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic to be Russia's "puppets", it would "make no sense to speak with them". He did not rule out holding of a referendum on the matter. Regarding the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, Zelensky said that, speaking realistically, it will be possible to return Crimea under Ukrainian control only after a regime change in Russia.

He has also come out against targeting the Russian language in Ukraine and the banning of artists for their (as viewed by the Ukrainian Government as anti-Ukrainian) political opinions.



Family

In September 2003 Zelensky married Olena Zelenska (née Kiyashko). They both attended the same grammar school.

The couple's first daughter Oleksandra was born in July 2004. In Zelensky's movie "8 New Dates" from 2014 she played "Sasha", the daughter of the protagonist. In 2016 she participated in the show "The Comedy Comedy's Kids" and won 50,000 hryvnias. Their son Cyril Zelensky was born in January 2013.


Volodymyr Zelensky with his wife Olena Zelenska

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[karl]

Pieter

Perhaps Mr. Zelensky would be a much needed breath of fresh air in the workings of the Ukrainian goverment, who knows? Ukraine has for many years been a nest of corruption, but to have such a change to be otherwise, in reality would be too much to dream for.

With the past of Ukraine with its squables with Russia, it would be a vast mistake to allow them in to the EU or even that of NATO. If the Ukrainians wish to continue their troubles with Russia, let them do it on their own.

Karl

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