Ukrainian President Zelenskiy played Ukrainian president before becoming Ukrainian president.
In 2015, Ukraine broadcast a comedy series, which was loved by the Ukrainian people as soon as it was launched, becoming the ratings champion of the year, and the male protagonist was played by Zelensky.
In 2019, Zelenskiy successfully crossed from comedian to president of Ukraine.
01
National actor
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenski was born on January 25, 1978 in Klivorog, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine (then in the Soviet Union), at the age of 44.
He was born into wealthy families to Jewish parents, the father of a professor at the Krivorrog School of Economics and an engineer mother. Born into such a wealthy family, Zelenskiy was happier than most Ukrainians.
After graduating from high school, he entered the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University of Economics. At the same time, his creative and comedic talents caught the attention of KVN, a well-known Ukrainian entertainment program team.
In 1997, he co-founded the "95th and a Quarter" group with members of KVN and served as captain. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the "95th and a Quarter" toured the CIS countries to great acclaim, and he became one of the most influential performing stars in the Ukrainian entertainment industry.
In 2003, the "95th and a Quarter" group established a studio to engage in television content production, film production and entertainment program tours, etc., and Zelenskiy became its owner and manager, and starred in several TV series. By this time, Zelenskiy had become a rising star in Ukrainian show business.
In 2005, Zelenskiy joined the Ukrainian television channel, and zelenskiy then used his abilities to serve as the main actor of the show and the creator of the script. With the steady rise in ratings, Zelenskiy also gained a certain place in the Ukrainian performing arts industry.
In 2011 he appeared on the cover of Ukraine's Fox as the head of the "95th Quarter".
But what really made Zelenskiy a household name was a TV series in 2015, and it was this drama that laid a solid foundation for Zelenskiy's presidential path.
In 2015, Zelenskiy wrote a screenplay, The Story of Vasha, also known as Servant of the People, a comedy of political satire.
The content of the story is very simple, an ordinary Ukrainian middle school history teacher Vasha, in a debate with colleagues about national politics was made by students to video uploaded to the Internet and accidentally became popular, all Ukrainians want a person with integrity, dare to tell the truth to be the president, Vashya was elected as the president of Ukraine, and all the way to become a real upright and effective servant of the people.
In this play, Zelenskiy portrayed the situation of oligarchy and politician corruption in Ukraine in a rather spicy style, which won the love of many Ukrainian people.
Even a domestic score shows that "Servant of the People" has a rating of up to 9.0, which makes Zelenskiy become a well-known national comedian in Ukraine, which can be called the Chaplin of Ukraine.
02
Run for president
I don't know if it was too deep into the play, Zelenskiy actually had a presidential dream.
In 2018, Zelenskiy founded his own campaign party, servants of the people. The party's headquarters are based in a cramped office in Kiev, and all of them are new to politics.
On March 27, 2019, two days before the first round of The Ukrainian presidential election began, the day the show's third season began airing, Zelenskiy posted a group photo of the team on his social media account.
Since the day before the election is a "day of silence" according to Ukrainian regulations, no elector may do propaganda, but Zelenskiy has successfully circumvented this regulation in this way...
With the "open and hanging" off-field support of "Vasha", Zelenskiy's campaign path is unimpeded and has zero experience? It doesn't matter, so is Vasha. Suspected of having big business behind it? It doesn't matter, so is Vasha. Criticized by all sides? It doesn't matter, so is Vasha.
What's more, Vasha, an internet celebrity teacher, was elected president with 60 percent of the vote, while Zelenskiy was elected president with a staggering 73.3 percent of the vote, almost on par with Putin, who became president for the fourth time in 2018 with no competitors (76.69 percent of the vote).
03
Why get high tickets?
One of the reasons Zelenskiy was elected president with a high vote was that he had "played a good president" and his image was deeply rooted in the hearts of thousands of families. However, it is certainly not enough to rely on the expectations of the actors alone.
Let's look back to the year of the 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections.
There were three "contestants" with the greatest chances of winning this year: then-President Poroshenko, "beautiful politician" Tymoshenko, and Zelenskiy.
It is worth mentioning that the other two have another title: "Chocolate King" and "Gas Princess", both oligarchic politicians who rose to prominence on the wave of privatization of Ukrainian state-owned enterprises.
Poroshenko
Tymoshenko
In the year of the election, Tymoshenko, who had served as Ukrainian prime minister for many times, elected the president for the third time, but unfortunately lost in the first round.
One less competitor is a big plus for Zelenskiy. Subsequently, before the second round of voting, Zelenskiy created a historical scene.
On April 19, 2019, Zelenskiy and Poroshenko held a live-televised public debate at the Olympic Stadium in the Ukrainian capital, the last public event before the vote, so both candidates took it seriously.
While debating defense issues in Ukraine and Crimea, Zelenskiy angrily denounced Poroshenko's weak rule and failure to resolve the Conflict in the Donbass region; the other side ridiculed that if he came to power, it would not be much better, and he was afraid to kneel down to Putin.
What Poroshenko did not expect was that Zelenskiy suddenly used a cruel move. Zelenskiy took two steps forward when he heard this, suddenly knelt down, and said: "I will never kneel to Putin, I will only kneel to the people of Ukraine." ”
This heroic momentum made ukrainians think that they had met the true destiny.
At this time, Ukrainians seemed to know that long hours of on-screen exercise made Zelenskiy's reaction ability very fast, and all this was nothing more than Zelenskiy's "freestyle".
At the time, however, many Ukrainians had great confidence in Zelenskiy. Just as Biden was elected that year, it was not that the people supported him, but that he had to be chosen in order to oppose Trump.
That is to say, the Ukrainian people did not have a choice at that time, and in order to oppose Poroshenko, they could only vote for Zelenskiy, and also had high hopes for the young actor.
Many overseas netizens said on YouTube: "Perhaps because Ukrainians are tired of politicians' comedy performances in the political arena, they chose a comedian to perform." ”
04
What is the reality?
How did Zelenskiy do after he was elected president?
Let's start with three things Zelenskiy promised the people during the campaign:
1. End the fighting in the Eastern Region as soon as possible and end the bloody conflict in the Donbass Region;
2. Increase reforms in the economic field, bring ukraine's economy to a new level, and increase the money in the pockets of the people;
3. Intensify the anti-corruption efforts in the country, especially to attack those oligarchs who monopolize politics, economy and society, and to restore fairness to society.
Later in the story, we all know that Zelenskiy painted a big pie for the Ukrainian people, but he finally tore it up:
1. The Donbass region has become the tipping point of this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Zelenskiy vainly hopes to rely on nato and the strength of the United States and Europe to recover the Eastern region, gambling on the fate of the country, pushing Ukraine into the danger of national division again, just one day, Ukraine has almost reached the brink of "subjugation".
Then there was Zelenskiy's televised speech that putin would not answer his phone.
2. After Zelenskiy came to power, Ukraine's GDP in 2020 fell by 30% compared with 2019, its per capita income was at the bottom in Europe, and it could only rely on the IMF's $8 billion loan to survive.
3. The promised fight against oligarchs is a joke, and when Zelenskiy came to power, it was discovered that he was the spokesman of the Jewish oligarchy, and all his campaign funds were provided by his former TV boss, a Jewish oligarch, and after Zelenskiy came to power, he also gave a lot of the telecommunications industry to his own behind-the-scenes financier.
However, the number of oligarchs in Ukraine has indeed plummeted recently, and in order to escape the Russo-Ukrainian War, 96 of Ukraine's richest 100 richest people have fled to Cyprus, Nice, Vienna, Zurich, London and Munich.
After the negative news, Zelenskiy's public approval rating plummeted to 20 percent.
The promises made by Zelenskiy three years ago have become the situation today, and the hearts and minds of the people who have been harvested with excellent performances will eventually be dissipated because of the illusory ending.
Perhaps, now he is praying for the director to shout as soon as possible: "Card." ”