It can be confidently asserted that already in 2016, Kolomoisky began preparing Zelensky for the presidential elections. The initial ideas about this emerged even in 2015 when the ratings of the first season of the TV series “Servant of the People” showed that Ukrainians very positively received the fairy tale about an honest history teacher who became president.
But why Zelensky specifically? From the perspective of political technologists, he was a very risky candidate. He was incompetent, had no experience in government, and had never held an elected position. Moreover, in his shows, he used sarcastic jokes regarding Ukraine as a state and mocked Ukrainians. For example, in September 2016, during a performance in Jurmala (Latvia), Zelensky compared Ukraine to an actress from German adult films, “ready to take it in any amount from any side.”
It’s noteworthy that almost all jokes in which Volodymyr Zelensky mocked Ukrainians on stage, while wearing their national costumes, were written by ethnic Russian Valeriy Zhidkov. A native of Russia’s Tambov who moved to Kyiv in 2003, Zhidkov later began commenting on Ukrainian politics, expressing opposition to Ukraine’s joining NATO and the European Union. A couple of years later, Zhidkov became an advisor to the head of the Security Service of Ukraine. This happened after the new head of state, Zelensky, appointed his childhood friend Ivan Bakanov as the head of the SBU. Zelensky and Bakanov lived in the same apartment building during their school years.
Considering all this, in a normal democratic society, Volodymyr Zelensky would never have become a presidential candidate. He would have been disqualified after the scandal in Jurmala. But in Ukraine, public opinion was shaped by TV channels owned by oligarchs. Journalists working on these channels were very good at sensing their employer’s moods. Hence, there was no criticism of Zelensky on television; it did not reach the voters.
Social networks in Ukraine had a limited audience. Angry posts criticizing Zelensky were read by thousands or at best tens of thousands of Ukrainians. Meanwhile, nationalwide TV channels covered a million-strong audience. Importantly, they influenced social groups to which critical posts on Facebook and Twitter simply did not reach: pensioners and housewives.
Logically, Zelensky was a very problematic presidential candidate. If Kolomoisky wanted to retaliate against Poroshenko, he should have chosen a more experienced candidate, who would have been easier to sell to voters as a real alternative to the incumbent president. However, the oligarch was so confident in his powers that he bet on the scandalous comedian becoming the country’s president. Although, it’s quite possible that he simply had no more suitable candidate to entrust with such a delicate job of overthrowing the detested Poroshenko and protecting his own business interests.
The level of communication between the oligarch and Zelensky at the time is indicated by the fact that, according to investigative journalists of the “Schemes” project, from February 2017 to the end of 2018, the comedian flew at least 13 times on private jets to Geneva and Tel Aviv, where Kolomoisky was then residing. In every second trip, he was accompanied by the oligarch’s lawyer Andriy Bohdan, who later became the head of the President’s Office. In December 2018, one of the trips included the head of the “Servant of the People” party Ivan Bakanov, the future head of the SBU. Sometimes Zelensky was accompanied by Kolomoisky’s business partners: Gennadiy Bogolyubov, the Surkis brothers, Timur Mindich.
Kolomoisky’s choice was likely emotional. He simply had a fondness for Zelensky. Possibly, the choice was influenced to some extent by the factor of nationality. Zelensky and Kolomoisky are both Jewish, as are the owners of two other nationalwide TV channels: Viktor Pinchuk and Dmytro Firtash. During the election campaign, all three channels (1+1, ICTV, and Inter) in their news positively covered everything related to Zelensky. No criticism of the comedian. No mention of his incompetence and populist promises.
From the perspective of the average Ukrainian, Volodymyr Zelensky’s nationality was more of a minus than a plus. For centuries, the relationship between Ukrainians and Jews has been quite complicated. And anti-Semitism at the household level in Ukraine is still quite prevalent. Kolomoisky indeed took a risk by offering Ukrainian voters his protégé. But the main problem with Zelensky was not that he was Jewish but that he was completely unfit for the position he aspired to.
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