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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Three years after the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was elected to Ukraine’s highest office, he found himself catapulted into the role of war-time leader. The former comedian has become the public face of his country’s courageous and bloody struggle against a brutal invasion. Zelensky’s extraordinary leadership in the face of Russia’s aggression is an inspiration to everyone who stands opposed to the appalling violence unleashed on Ukraine.
This book – the first biography of Zelensky published in English – tells his astonishing story. It has been revised and updated for this new paperback edition.
Also available as an audiobook.
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Seitenzahl: 351
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Abbreviations
Map
Preface: Zelensky’s Political Oscar
1 Ten Assassination Attempts on President Zelensky
2 The Campaign for President
3 “Let It Be the Stadium Then!”
4 Zelensky and Forty-Two Million Presidents
5 Devirtualization of Servant of the People
6 A Mad Printer for the President
7 Trump’s Impeachment
8 Vice-President Bohdan
9 The Cosmic Year of 1978
10 The Irreplaceable Yuliya Mendel
11 Look into the Eyes of Putin and …
12 The Amateur on an Electric Scooter
13 A Little Bell for Maslyakov
14 Godfather Rodnyansky
15 A Scandal in Jurmala
16 The Family of Kvartal 95
17 The Kadyrov Ordeal
18 Ebonite Rods
19 Zelensky’s Double
20 Zelensky’s Ceremonial General
21 Zelensky’s Shefir Brothers
22 Kolomoisky’s Knife
23 Poroshenko on His Knees
24 The Zelensky Collective
25 Zelensky’s Idol Syvokho
26 The Polygraph for “Servants of the People”
27 Who Turned Zelensky into an Addict?
28 Zelensky under Yermak
29 Zelensky’s Dream Team
30 Zelensky’s Architect
31 The Magic Number 95
32 He Who Burdened Zelensky with the Presidency
33 A Gagarin for Zelensky
34 A Black Mirror for a Hero
35 Zvirobiy, Fedyna, and a Victim
36 Wagnergate: A Story with Many Unknowns
37 How the Oligarch Akhmetov Prepared a Coup for Zelensky
38 A Blow to Putin’s Ally
39 One Step Away from War
40 The Bucha Massacre
41 Defenders of Mariupol: Men Made of Flesh and Steel
42 Zelensky’s Conquest of America
43 Putin with a Ukrainian Accent
44 Army, Language, Faith
45 The Day of Putin’s Humiliation
Epilogue: The President of War
Chronology
Glossary
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Abbreviations
Map
Preface: Zelensky’s Political Oscar
Begin Reading
Epilogue: The President of War
Chronology
Glossary
End User License Agreement
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ZELENSKY
A Biography
Expanded and Updated
SERHII RUDENKO
Translated by
Olena Matiola, Michael M. NaydanAlla Perminova and Sarah Sharpe
polity
Originally published in Ukrainian as Зеленський без гриму in 2021 © Serhii Rudenko. Agreement via Wiedling Literary Agency.
This English edition © Polity Press, 2022This expanded and updated paperback edition published in 2023 by Polity Press
The Preface, Chapters 1–37, 40, the Chronology and the Epilogue were translated by Michael M. Maydan and Alla Perminova. Chapters 38–39, 41–45, the Glossary and various other additions made for the paperback edition were translated by Olena Matiola and Sarah Sharpe.
Polity Press65 Bridge StreetCambridge CB2 1UR, UK
Polity Press111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030, USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5639-7
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number 2022939916
The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
For further information on Polity, visit our website:politybooks.com
Abbreviations
ATO
(Anti-Terrorist Operation)
BPP
(Petro Poroshenko Bloc)
BRDO
(Better Regulation Delivery Office)
CECU
(Central Election Commission)
CJSC
(Closed Joint-Stock Company)
CPSU
(Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
CPU
(Communist Party of Ukraine)
DPI
(Donetsk Polytechnic Institute)
DPR
(Donetsk People’s Republic)
FISU
(Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine)
HUR MO
(Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine)
KIMV
(Kyiv Institute of International Relations)
KVK
(Club of the Cheerful and Quick-Witted – Ukrainian)
КVN
(Club of the Cheerful and Quick-Witted – Russian)
LKSMU
(Leninist Communist Union of Ukrainian Youth)
LPR
(Luhansk People’s Republic)
NABU
(National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine)
NACP
(National Agency on Corruption Prevention)
NBU
(National Bank of Ukraine)
NSDCU
(National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine)
NSK
(National Sports Complex)
ORDLO
(the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine)
OSCE
(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)
PGOU
(Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine)
PVK
(Private Military Company)
RSA
(Regional State Administration)
SAPO
(Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office)
SBI
(State Bureau of Investigation)
SBU
(Security Service of Ukraine)
SDPU(o)
(Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united))
TCG
(Trilateral Contact Group)
Preface: Zelensky’s Political Oscar
On April 21, 2019, at 8:00 p.m., Volodymyr Zelensky and members of his team appeared before journalists to the sounds of the song “I Love My Country” from the soundtrack to the film (and TV series) Servant of the People.
At that moment, it was as if this simple song was being sung not only by the victorious candidate himself, but also by the 73 percent of the electorate who had voted for him.
Both Ukrainian and foreign journalists, who flooded the capital’s Parkovy Convention and Exhibition Center, were looking forward to the victory speech of the newly elected president. Zelensky was radiant. And so were those who had led him to victory: Andriy Bohdan, Dmytro Razumkov, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Andriy Yermak, Oleksandr Danyliuk, and Zelensky’s wife Olena. Confetti was flying all around, the hall was buzzing, the staff were ready to dance for joy.
“We did it together …,” Zelensky began his speech, with his characteristic intonation. First, as befits an actor at the Oscars, he thanked his team, his family, his relatives, his wife Olena, and even two cleaning ladies, Oksana and Lyuba, who kept the headquarters neat and tidy. He also mentioned the symbolic 73rd section at the Olympic Stadium, where he and his team shot the famous video Stadion tak Stadion (“Let It Be the Stadium Then!”).
Zelensky was still in the character of Vasyl Holoborodko – the protagonist of the film and TV series – and tried to joke, tossing barbs at the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), which, according to him, kept him on his toes at all times, and, all the while, displaying optimism. It was as if, in saying goodbye to his acting career, Zelensky was counting on receiving the same raucous applause as he entered the political arena. Sure enough, he was used to being loved by the public and to hearing shouts of “Bravo” and “Encore!” This was no small wonder. He had received ovations in grand concert halls and theaters in Moscow, Kyiv, Odesa, Jurmala, Minsk, and other cities of the former Soviet Union; he became a rising star in 1997 after appearing in Aleksandr Maslyakov’s game show КVN (Club of the Cheerful and Quick-Witted).1 This was when television fame anointed the 19-year-old actor. Prior to his presidency, Volodymyr Zelensky was a popular actor beloved by many Ukrainians.
But, on the evening of April 21, 2019, having won a landslide victory in the presidential election, could he have imagined that, only about six months later, he would, after addressing a crowd, be hearing: “Shame!” and “Away with Zelya!”?2 And not only from the supporters of his main opponent Petro Poroshenko, but also from his own aides, the military, and the politicians.
A few months after the inauguration, Zelensky started dismissing those who had led him to victory. The first to go was the secretary of the NSDCU (National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine) Oleksandr Danyliuk, who allegedly took offense at Zelensky for not making him prime minister. The second member to leave the team was the head of the Office of the President Andriy Bohdan, who had been with him since his first steps in big-time politics. Then, Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka both lost their posts. Later, in July 2022, Ivan Bakanov was dismissed from his post as the head of the SBU and, in January 2023, Kyrylo Tymoshenko lost his post as deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
These people were all part of the Zelensky collective, elected by the country on April 21, 2019. Because right through to the end of the presidential campaign, there was no such thing as Zelensky the politician. At all. He was a talented comedian, manager of the Inter TV channel and Kvartal 95 Studio. An actor who played the high-school teacher Vasyl Holoborodko, who, in the TV series, became head of state. Zelensky’s presidential image was constructed by those around him.
In 2019, Ukraine’s sixth president announced: “I promise I will never let you all down.” Since then, we have seen Zelensky in various situations. He and his team have been criticized for being unprofessional. They have been accused of corruption, arrogance, and even treason. However, since February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, we have seen a completely different Zelensky. A man who was not afraid to accept Putin’s challenge and become the leader of popular resistance to Russian aggression. A president who managed to unite in this fight both supporters and opponents, corrupt officials and fighters against corruption, adults and children, people of different nationalities and faiths. A head of state who is greeted with applause in European parliaments and the US Congress.
Each episode in the life of the sixth president of Ukraine as presented in this book forms a piece in the mosaic of the portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky. A man who, with neither political experience nor relevant knowledge, promised Ukrainians he would change the state. A man trusted by 13.5 million voters.
There will be no moralizing, prejudice, or manipulation in this book. Just facts. I will try to recreate the portrait of the sixth president of Ukraine devoid of actor’s makeup.
How successful I have been will be for you, kind readers, to judge.
1.
A competitive comedy skit game show
Klub veselykh i nakhodchivykh,
filmed in Moscow.
2.
Pejorative nickname for Zelensky.
Episode 1Ten Assassination Attempts on President Zelensky
On February 24, 2022, at 4:50 a.m., Russia launched its first missile strikes on Ukrainian territory. At the same time as Russian television was broadcasting Vladimir Putin’s address to his people, the first ballistic missiles were falling on Ukrainians in their capital city Kyiv, as well as in Kharkiv, Odesa, Mariupol, Dnipro, and other cities. A few kilometers from my house in Kyiv, in Brovary and Boryspil, the ground shook with explosions. Sleepy cities were reeling from the initial shock. Sirens of ambulances, fire engines, and rescue vehicles pierced the winter air. My conscious mind refused to accept the fact that Russia was bombing a free and independent country in the center of Europe. It seemed like a nightmare that would surely end with the first rays of the sun.
However, this was not a bad dream. It was the new reality into which Ukrainians had awakened.
An hour and a half after the first strikes, Zelensky addressed the people and confirmed the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine. And as dawn broke, news emerged about the first victims of the Kremlin’s attack – those who were at military sites that had been hit by missiles. Thus the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation began, something no one had wanted to believe would happen up until the very last moment. This included Volodymyr Zelensky. A month before the war, despite warnings from American and British intelligence about a possible Russian attack, the president insisted that everything was under his complete control and that foreigners were simply spreading unjustified panic.
During the night of February 24, just a few hours before the war began, the Ukrainian president publicly addressed the Russians. He sincerely hoped he could stop Putin – even though, after the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of part of the Donbas in 2014, it was clear that the only way to stop the master of the Kremlin would be the complete surrender of Ukraine or a bullet in his forehead. Putin tried to convince everyone that Ukrainian statehood began with Vladimir Lenin, and that Ukrainians were a people invented by Count Potocki. Incidentally, he repeated this before the attack on Ukraine, despite the fact that the Ukrainian capital was founded when the site of modern Moscow consisted of nothing but swampland. Putin’s public desire to defend the so-called “independence” of the pseudo-republics of the LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic) and the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) was the only reason given for his attempt to destroy the Ukrainian state.
President Zelensky faced Putin’s challenge with dignity. Despite numerous proposals from the United States and ten assassination attempts (at least this was the number indicated in March 2022 by Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to the Office of the President), he did not abandon Kyiv. Putin wanted Zelensky dead, if not physically, then at least politically. And the fact that this did not happen shows the weakness of the master of the Kremlin. Zelensky’s office in the center of the Ukrainian capital has become one of the important symbols of the invincibility of the Ukrainian people. The unembellished courage with which, as supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Ukraine, he entered the war with Russia truly impressed Ukrainians, and, even more so, his opponents. He received standing ovations in European parliaments and became the center of world attention. Volodymyr Zelensky’s current popularity in the West can only be compared to that of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Blitzkrieg that Vladimir Putin was counting on in Ukraine failed. Russia encountered fierce resistance from the Ukrainian people, led by Zelensky. The Kremlin seemed unprepared for the fact that the war unleashed by Russia would be seen as a real war by the Ukrainian people. The Russian aggressors were met with heavy resistance – not only from the military, but also from ordinary citizens. For the first time in Ukraine’s recent history, we witnessed the people uniting against an external enemy. Moscow also didn’t expect that the proud Ukrainians fighting for their freedom and independence would find support across the globe. During the first year of the war, an anti-Putin coalition, known as the Ramstein Group or Ramstein Format, was formed, with more than fifty countries supplying Ukraine with weapons.1 What seemed like a fantasy back in early 2022 – the provision of heavy equipment including tanks and anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukrainians – had become a reality. Zelensky and his team had managed to make the West believe in Ukraine.
In time, historians will no doubt write about Zelensky’s role and his victory in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Films will be made and books will be written about him; streets, avenues, and universities will be named after him. Zelensky will be associated with the period in Ukrainian history that will become known as “the final rupture between Ukraine and Russia.”
For centuries, Ukrainians have fought against Moscow for the right to be free and independent. Millions of people sacrificed their lives in bloody resistance; it seemed that there would be no end to the wars between Ukrainians and Russia. Until recently, the Kremlin had hoped to be able to keep Ukraine in its orbit, and its miscalculation stems from this. Vladimir Putin got it wrong when he spoke disparagingly about Volodymyr Zelensky. Ironically, the one person whom the Russian president refused to accept as an equal has become the undertaker of the modern Russian regime.
1.
The Ramstein Format took its name from the Ramstein Airbase in Germany, where the first meeting was held on April 26, 2022.
Episode 2The Campaign for President
It’s December 31, 2018. Five minutes to midnight. Ukrainians are about to see in the New Year with champagne glasses in their hands. The countdown starts, in anticipation of the president’s speech. For Petro Poroshenko, this New Year’s greeting is to be his final one as head of state.
Political science is merciless. Only 11.6 percent of the electorate, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, looks like voting for the incumbent president. The favorite in the race is Poroshenko’s longtime opponent Yuliya Tymoshenko, with a projected 21.2 percent of the vote. The third most likely presidential candidate, Volodymyr Zelensky, artistic director of Kvartal 95 Studio, with a projected 14.6 percent of the vote, has not yet said a word about his intention to run for office.
The traditional New Year’s performance of Kvartal 95 on the 1+1 TV channel is interrupted for congratulations from the president. But instead of Poroshenko, Volodymyr Zelensky appears on the screen. In a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, he comes out from backstage. “Good evening, friends,” he begins in Russian, and fifteen seconds later switches to Ukrainian.
He talks about three paths that Ukrainians can choose.
The first is to live as before.
The second is to pack up and go abroad.
And the third is to try to change things in Ukraine.
“And I choose the third path for myself. People have been asking me for a long time – are you running or not? You know, unlike our great politicians, I didn’t want to offer you empty promises. But now, a few minutes before the New Year, I am promising you something and will do so right away. Dear Ukrainians, I’m promising you I will run for president. And I’m doing it right away. I’m running for president,” Zelensky announced.
I am sure that almost no one sitting at their festive New Year’s tables realized exactly what had happened at that moment. It all just looked like part of a Kvartal 95 show.
It was like a concert backstage. Dimmed light. A smiling Zelensky. The Paddington Bear voice that he used when dubbing the cartoon movie. Well, what the hell kind of damn presidential candidate is he? Where’s the tie? Where’s his suit? Where are the traditional words filled with pathos? Where is all this? And where is Petro Poroshenko? Supporters of the fifth president, seeing Zelensky instead of Poroshenko on their screens, were fulminating on social networks. “What? This clown?” “Who is he to run for president?” “It’s outrageous!” Subscribers didn’t hold back in their comments about Zelensky, the oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky who controls 1+1, or Oleksandr Tkachenko, the channel’s CEO, who would later become a people’s deputy in the Servant of the People Party and, later, Ukraine’s minister of culture.
Apparently, the statement of the artistic director of Kvartal 95 Studio was perceived as a bad joke in many election headquarters. However, on New Year’s Eve, Zelensky was more serious than ever.
Those who took the actor’s performance to be a famous comedian’s joke had no idea that Zelensky had already decided, a long time before, to run for president. His team had been preparing for the election for quite a while. Throughout the summer of 2018, Zelensky kept the intrigue going, trolling the popular frontman of the Okean Elzy band Svyatoslav Vakarchuk: “Slava, are you going to run or not? Because if you are, so am I. So, if your answer is an ironclad ‘yes’ or a definite ‘no,’ then so is mine. Because everyone keeps asking, well, what about me? And what about me? As far as I am concerned, everything is clear. What about you? Because if it’s you and me, then it’s us. Do you understand? And if it’s ‘we,’ then – everyone.”
According to the politician Roman Bezsmertny, he met with Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and asked him not to run for president and to convince Volodymyr Zelensky to follow suit. As Bezsmertny told me:
I said, “Slava, I respect you as an artist, but please meet with Zelensky and agree that neither you nor Zelensky will run. Because if you do both run, you will simply break Ukraine and it will be very difficult to know what will happen next.” I don’t know whether Vakarchuk listened to me or to someone else, but he acted very wisely: he did not run. Instead, he missed his chance during the parliamentary campaign. And I understand this perfectly, because I knew for sure that neither of them was able to shoulder the problems facing Ukraine, the key one being war.
Nevertheless, in fall 2018, the headquarters of the presidential candidate were formed, joined by political strategist Dmytro Razumkov – almost the only media figure at the time (other than, of course, the frontman of Kvartal 95).
Zelensky’s team was preparing for the election. During the winter of 2018–19, they paid for advertising on the radio and on billboards with the slogan “I’m not kidding.” It was during this period that the première of the third season of the series Servant of the People was postponed. In it, the current president of Ukraine played the role of the teacher Vasyl Holoborodko, who suddenly, surprising even himself, becomes president.
But hardly anyone in Zelensky’s team was counting on victory then. And Zelensky himself, according to the former head of the Office of the President Andriy Bohdan, didn’t make the final decision to participate in the presidential campaign until December 31, 2018.
It is clear that, for Zelensky and his associates, it was a great opportunity to promote the Servant of the People Party, which had been registered in April 2016 before the upcoming parliamentary campaign.
For Ihor Kolomoisky, who had strained relations with Petro Poroshenko, Zelensky became a bargaining chip for both Ukraine’s fifth president and his lifelong opponent Yuliya Tymoshenko.
However, according to political strategist Serhiy Haidai, Zelensky’s team saw the presidential election as a kind of game. As he explained to me:
I had a conversation with people who talked to the Shefir brothers, his business partners. Even when the campaign was in full swing, they did not believe he would win. They thought it could not happen, that Volodymyr was just playing. But when he won, they were even more confused. They didn’t know what to do, because they understood what a responsibility it was and that their old life was over, that there would be no more Kvartal 95, along with all their production companies … They found themselves in a completely different reality, in which they would have to be completely different people. And they were at a loss. They tried to consult someone, but there was nowhere to turn. Because everything had already changed, including for Zelensky himself. I think Bohdan was already telling him: “Now, don’t worry, I know what to do, how to do it, we need to move forward.” At that time, nobody liked Bohdan very much, because he was too conspicuous next to the president, and it was obvious that he was the driver of this process.
The step taken by Volodymyr Zelensky that New Year’s Eve would change not only the leisurely paced life of a celebrity; this step would change the rules of the game in Ukrainian politics.
It turns out that, on March 22, 2019, one of the participants in the presidential race, the politician Roman Bezsmertny, tried to stop Zelensky and publicly urged him to withdraw from the race. “Remove your documents from the CECU [Central Election Commission] because it would be an embarrassment and humiliation for the nation,” he said.
However, this call remained unheeded.
The result?
Petro Poroshenko would receive a loud slap in the face from voters.
Yuliya Tymoshenko would not be waiting in the wings for her turn to be president.
Oleh Lyashko would get a strong competitor on the political scene and, a few months later, his Radical Party would lose the parliamentary elections.
Colonel Anatoliy Hrytsenko would retire from politics.
Ukraine would get what it wanted: Volodymyr Zelensky.
Episode 3“Let It Be the Stadium Then!”
On April 19, 2019, the atmosphere in the largest stadium in Ukraine – NSK (National Sports Complex) Olympic Stadium – was frenetic.
Twenty thousand spectators were waiting for the debate between Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky. For the first time in the history of Ukraine’s presidential race, the candidates tried to drive each other into a tight corner – accompanied by a roar from the stands. This show was being filmed and broadcast by 150 TV channels.
Throughout almost the entire presidential campaign, Poroshenko’s team had allowed themselves to disparage Volodymyr Zelensky. “Hologram,” “clown,” “Kolomoisky’s puppet,” “the hand of the Kremlin” – this is a far from complete list of the verbal insults that were repeated by Poroshenko almost every day. He and his political strategists were convinced that candidate Zelensky was a total waste of time.
According to Poroshenko’s team, there would be enough public debate to prove this. Indeed, this would be one of those political all-around competitions in which the then president seemed already to have the upper hand. And Zelensky? What could be expected from a comedian? Memorized speeches? Prompts from advisors? “Yes, I’ll run rings round him,” Poroshenko must have thought. But he was very wrong about that. As it turned out, Zelensky had been preparing for the debate for a whole week. At least, that’s what Andriy Bohdan claims.
It must be said that Poroshenko’s team insisted on having this debate between the presidential candidates even before the first round of elections. It was already clear by then that there were three main contenders for the presidency – Petro Poroshenko, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Yuliya Tymoshenko. However, the artistic director of Kvartal 95 blatantly ignored the invitation to take part in the debate. But in the period between the first and second rounds of the election, the desire to bring his opponent in from the virtual to the real world and prove his impotency as a politician had already become an obsession among Poroshenko and his staff.
So it was that, after two weeks of discussions, Zelensky invited Poroshenko to a debate, which was set to take place two days before the second round of elections – on April 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the Olympic Stadium. With spectators and TV broadcasts throughout the country – this was Zelensky’s condition. Zelensky’s address to Poroshenko was filmed in a cinematic way. He walks along the corridor of the stadium, enters the field in section seventy-three of the stands, and, like a true boxer, invites his opponent to debate.
Obviously, the actor had chosen his familiar surroundings – the stage, the audience, applause, spotlights, and TV cameras. After brief negotiations, Poroshenko was forced to agree to this format. His desire to demonstrate the insignificance of his opponent was so great that he agreed to all his terms.
There were two support teams at the stadium. Two stages. Two concerts taking place at the same time. Different sections for Poroshenko’s and for Zelensky’s supporters. The hosts were popular Ukrainian journalists Olena Frolyak and Andriy Kulykov. Teams of presidential candidates. The only things missing were a display of championship belts of the presidential candidates and introductions such as there are at a boxing match: “Ladies and gentlemen …”
People were expecting a show. And they got it.
Poroshenko left his stage and went over to the stage set by Zelensky’s team. The two men shook hands, and the debate began.
Zelensky was not as helpless as Poroshenko had imagined. What happened on April 19 on the stage of the NSK Olympic Stadium can hardly be called a debate. It was a typical KVK (Club of the Cheerful and Quick-Witted) skit.1 To be more precise, it was a competition between two captains, in which Zelensky felt like a fish in water. Yes, he had done his homework and made good use of it in his speech. Yes, he called the breakaway DPR militants “insurgents.” Yes, he childishly promised that his opponent would face difficult times after the presidential race. But Zelensky looked sincere – although this sincerity might have been a bit undermined by his friend and Kvartal colleague Yevhen Koshovy, who appeared on stage wearing a hoody with the inscription “ПОХУЙ” [“I don’t give a fuck”].
Discussions between Poroshenko and Zelensky about the future of the country did not go well. This verbal duel is best described as consisting of mutual accusations, public reproaches, political taunts. The comedian accused the fifth president of having corrupt friends, of making blood money, of failing to investigate insurgents involved in the Revolution of Dignity at the Maidan or to take control in the endless war in the Donbas. In response, Poroshenko rebuked Zelensky for evading conscription, for his lack of political independence and his ties with Kolomoisky, and for his apparent backing by former members of the Party of Regions.
However, Zelensky’s stance still defeated Poroshenko, forcing him to kneel at the Olympic Stadium before the families of those who had perished.
“I am not your opponent, I am your verdict.” Zelensky’s theatrical and emotional phrase, addressed to Poroshenko, seems to have put an end to the debate at the stadium. To be more precise, it terminated Poroshenko’s five-year term and launched Zelensky’s political career.
With almost the very same mistakes as those of his opponent.
With accusations of corruption against his team.
With his friends and cronies in power.
One thing is absolutely clear: Zelensky could hardly have imagined what challenges awaited him and the country at the end of February 2022. Neither could the country have imagined that, with the start of full-scale war, it would see a completely different president.
1.
KVK is the acronym for the Ukrainian iteration of the KVN Moscow-based comedy game show, and is called
Klub veselykh i kmytlyvykh
in Ukrainian.
Episode 4Zelensky and Forty-Two Million Presidents
On April 30, 2019, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CECU) announced the final results of the presidential election: 73.22 percent for Volodymyr Zelensky versus 24.45 percent for Petro Poroshenko.
Zelensky’s convincing victory left no doubt that he would be at the helm within a few weeks. However, it turned out not to be so easy, as Parliament, in recess in May, could not decide on the date of President Zelensky’s inauguration for two weeks. There were public reproaches from Zelensky’s team addressed to their opponents, telling them to get their stuff out of Bankova Street and free up their offices. It seemed that the winners were about to lose patience and make the losing party move out of the presidential headquarters without the conventional niceties.
Zelensky understood perfectly well: he, to put it mildly, was not particularly welcome in Ukrainian politics. Even a landslide victory in the election did not make him equal among those who had spent more than a decade in government on the Pechersk Hills in the capital. Zelensky was well aware of this. Therefore, he immediately issued an ultimatum to the Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament of Ukraine): “The inauguration must take place on May 19.” Rumor has it that Zelensky insisted on this date following the advice of astrologers. Supposedly, it was a favorable day to start new affairs.
However, Parliament refused Zelensky’s request. On Sunday, May 19, the victims of political repression were commemorated in Ukraine, so the people’s deputies (members of Parliament) decided to swear the newly elected president into office the following day, May 20. Zelensky was unable to hide his irritation.
On inauguration day, Constitution Square in front of the Parliament building resembled the sidewalk of the Cannes Film Festival – TV cameras were everywhere, thousands of fans waiting for the star to appear. Zelensky’s relatives, friends, and supporters were lined up all the way to the observation deck near the Mariinsky Palace.
Five minutes before 10:00 a.m., Volodymyr Zelensky, accompanied by four security guards, marched to the Rada to the public’s applause. The newly elected president was in a good mood, radiating happiness, extending his hand to those who sought to congratulate him. Seeing his friend from Kvartal 95 Studio, Yevhen Koshovy, in the crowd, Zelensky jumped up and kissed his shaved head. And this was probably his last prank as a man free from the presidency.
At 10:01 a.m., Zelensky entered the Verkhovna Rada. Twenty-five minutes later, he was sworn in, and he took to the floor in his new capacity.
The sixth president began his speech: “My dear Ukrainians! After winning the election, my 6-year-old son said: ‘Dad, I’ve seen on TV that they say Zelensky is president. So I’m president too!’ At that moment it sounded like a child’s joke. But then I realized that it was really true, because each and every one of us is president.”
Standing behind the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada, whose members were for the most part skeptical of the newly elected man, Zelensky appeared to be enjoying this rejection. I’m sure that, if he had been on the stage of Kvartal 95 at that moment, he would have jumped up with his fist raised and exclaimed: “I’ve beaten you all!” But protocol and the presence of foreign guests forced Zelensky to mind his behavior. But not his words.
In his inaugural speech, President Zelensky had many fine and considerate words to say both to those who were leaving the country and to those who were losing faith in Ukraine in annexed Crimea and the occupied Donbas. He stated that the Ukrainian state needed peace and the country needed a reboot. He looked like someone who had decided to break the system, which would, of course, resist.
It took two months to approve laws on the abolition of parliamentary immunity, illegal self-enrichment, and to vote for a new electoral code, after which there were early parliamentary elections in Ukraine. Zelensky spoke the language of ultimatums. Noise, applause, and disgruntled shouts in the parliamentary hall forced him to utter every word of his speech clearly, with theatrical pauses. At that moment, everything happening under the dome of the Verkhovna Rada resembled the shooting of the next episode of the Servant of the People TV series. Zelensky, who demanded the immediate resignation of the head of the SBU, the defense minister, the prosecutor general, and members of the government, lacked only the two machine guns with which his film hero shot the deputies.
The political “dinosaurs” in the hall of the Rada watched Zelensky with scorn and skepticism, as if challenging him to “digest” them. The four ex-presidents sitting in the guest box – Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko – seemed to be thinking something similar. Nobody knew what Viktor Yanukovych (the exiled former president) was thinking about in the suburbs of Moscow at that time. But the anxious face of Olena Zelensky, who sat alongside the former presidents, was very eloquent. The first lady was tense and worried. She was one of the few who did not want Zelensky to be president.
At the end of the inauguration, the parliamentary speaker, Andriy Parubiy, smiled and said: “Thank you all for participating in this solemn meeting. It was fun.”
Zelensky didn’t seem to like this. However, he didn’t argue with Parubiy. Leaving the Parliament hall, the president exchanged courtesies with Oleh Lyashko, a man whom he had repeatedly parodied on the stage of Zelensky’s Evening Kvartal TV show.
“Volodymyr, you started badly, you will end badly!” the leader of the Radical Party exclaimed. In response, Zelensky pointed his index finger at Lyashko.
Zelensky’s presidential beginning was cinematically bright, with a well-written script and a well-worked mise-en-scène.
People outside the Rada and in front of their TVs went crazy. Their idol was tearing up the old system like a rag.
A new era had begun – the era of President Zelensky.
Episode 5Devirtualization of Servant of the People
In the beginning was the word. Or rather, several words. And, more precisely, the name of the TV series: Servant of the People.
Then there was a political party with the same name.
Without an ideology.
Without local party associations.
Without party members.
What’s more, it became Servant of the People only because the Party of Decisive Changes had been renamed.
A kind of virtual political feast in the era of virtual sex and love. With dubious electoral prospects, and whose chairman Ivan Bakanov was a lawyer and a childhood friend of Zelensky.
With absolutely nothing behind it, the party already had a 4 percent following in December 2017. Political scientists later gave it 5 percent support, and then 8.7 percent.
Those whose business it was to sell political illusions and the image of Vasyl Holoborodko, the hero of the TV series, felt at ease in the virtual world. In fact, it was Zelensky’s reliance on the Servant of the People Party that helped him in his run for president. Despite his being listed as non-partisan and self-nominated on the ballot, everyone understood perfectly well: when you say Servant of the People, you have in mind Zelensky; when you say Zelensky, you have in mind Servant of the People.
After Zelensky’s victory in the presidential election, no one had any doubts that the party of which he was the informal leader would become the country’s main party.
At the end of May 2019, Ivan Bakanov, who had been interim head of the SBU, was replaced by Dmytro Razumkov, who also became the new leader of the Servant of the People Party. Two weeks later, at a congress at the Kyiv Botanical Garden, the party announced its first 100 candidates, who were going to run in early parliamentary elections.
Zelensky’s associates immediately stated that the Servant of the People Party professed the ideology of libertarianism, which is based on the principle of freedom. Later, the president’s allies repeatedly tried to amend the party’s ideological principles. Ultimately, they said that the Servant of the People professed the ideology of “Ukrainian centrism.” However, it is certainly the case that 45 percent of Ukrainians who were willing to vote for them had absolutely no idea about the ideological foundations of their favorite party. For them, Servant of the People just stood for a popular TV series in which Zelensky, in the guise of Vasyl Holoborodko, skillfully defeated the government that hated the people.
