Since the outbreak of a new round of Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy seems to have finally remembered that he was once an "actor", and he began to make frequent appearances, speeches, and high-profile interpretations of a tragic wartime president through short videos and online social media.
It can be said that Zelenskiy has suppressed Putin in the public opinion war through the way of "internet celebrities", although Putin also issued an exciting "ten-thousand-word speech" before the war, but this traditional way of public opinion propaganda is obviously not as effective as online guerrilla warfare.
However, if you think about it carefully, Zelenskiy did not seem to have brought any substantial help to Ukraine except for his hard work to "perform".
Although the West has given Ukraine great sympathy, NATO has said it will not send troops; the European Union, although it accepted Ukraine's application for membership, did not agree to its accession; the West has not even generously donated a large amount of economic and weaponry assistance, and German aid equipment is even a cold war stockpile that is about to expire, and thousands of helmets are dispensable.
The most practical advice from the United States seems to be that of Zelenskiy in exile.
It can be said that Zelenskiy received all the support except for all the substantial help, but this did not seem to affect his popularity.
Since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Zelenskiy has attracted countless fans in Western society, and for a time he has been named "leader of the free world" and robbed US President Biden of his "title". According to some Ukrainian media reports, Zelenskiy's support at home has reached 90%, far more than the 73% when he was elected president.
Today we will pick a pickpocket, comedian-born Zelenskiy, why can he become the president of Ukraine? Since coming to power, with almost no political achievements, why can it get the highest approval rating in history?
Zelens was born in 1978 to a Jewish family in eastern Ukraine to a professor father and an engineer mother. As a child, because his father worked in Mongolia, he spent 4 years of his childhood in Mongolia, where the pristine ecology and endless grasslands impressed him so much that now he has a hint of steppe wildness in his career.
By the time he returned to Ukraine, Zelenskiy was in the second grade of elementary school, and because of his habits from an early age, Russian became his first language, so much so that when he was elected president of Ukraine, he had to spend time practicing his Ukrainian language.
As a student, Zelenskiy had very good grades, took the TOEFL test, and wanted to study in Israel, but under the advice of his parents, he finally chose to study in Ukraine, majoring in law. However, after he graduated, except for a two-month legal internship, he has not been exposed to legal-related work since then.
As early as college, Zelenskiy's talent for acting began to show, and he appeared on television at the age of 19. Before graduating he participated in the Russian comedy show KVN, where his natural comedy and exaggerated performances were recognized by many audiences.
In 1997, Zelenskiy and several of his companions formed a Russian-language performance team called "95th Block", which later developed into a film and television production company, which mainly spit and satirized the Ukrainian government. According to the official website of the 95th Block, all the films produced by the team have surpassed Hollywood at the box office in the CIS countries.
Zelenskiy thus became the most well-known comedian in Ukraine, before becoming president, Zelenskiy had more than 3 million followers on YouTube, and in Ukraine, which has a population of only 40 million, his video was as high as 15 million views, which is enough to see Zelenskiy's influence in Ukraine.
In 2015, Zelenskiy's role as "Vasily" in the TV series "Servant of the People" eventually became the president of Ukraine from a teacher.
Since 2014, the political situation in Ukraine has been turbulent, and the confidence of the Ukrainian people in the Ukrainian government is very low. In the eyes of ordinary people, the Ukrainian government is the biggest evil person, so the Ukrainians' spit and laughter after dinner have become mocking the government.
Against this backdrop, Servant of the People satirizes the corruption and incompetence of the Ukrainian government all the time, and the various classic line dialogues resonate strongly with Ukrainians.
"Servant of the People" is regarded as the most acclaimed TV series in Ukraine in recent years, and Zelenskiy has become the embodiment of "justice" in the hearts of Ukrainians because of this TV series, and even many Ukrainians have begun to call zelenskiy to run for Ukrainian president.
However, what even Ukrainians may not expect is that in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, Zelenskiy really went to run.
Zelenskiy's opponents were two, one was the then Ukrainian President Poroshenko, one of the richest people in Ukraine, who gave her the nickname "Chocolate King"; the other was Tymoshenko, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tymoshenko stole a large number of Ukrainian natural gas and other resources to form a monopoly, people sent the nickname "gas princess", but Ukrainians prefer to call her "thief".
On the surface, Zelenskiy could not compete with the two oligarchs at all, but for the Ukrainians, Zelenskiy "had no background" and "no resources", and he was also an ordinary person, which was "too clean" compared to the two oligarchs, so he had a heroic charm of challenging the authority on behalf of the people.
Zelenskiy's presidential campaign did not have a specific platform, or even a campaign, that is, he did not promise voters the goals of governing and specific steps of action after his election, and almost every speech was just a slogan: anti-corruption, change, regroupment. It seems that everything seems to be so amateurish and childish.
Poroshenko seized on this and took the lead in the challenge, mocking Zelenskiy for being inexperienced, weak, unsent, and unable to deal with Putin, and asking Zelenskiy to debate with himself, hoping to seize on his zero-experience weakness and disappoint Zelenskiy's supporters.
However, Zelenskiy unexpectedly chose to fight head-on, and also took the initiative to put the debate venue in the Olympic Stadium, the largest sports arena in Ukraine.
Not only that, but Zelenskiy also killed a beautiful rifle that demanded alcohol and drug monitoring before the debate to prove that the future president was not an addict or an alcoholic.
The reason for this is that in the 2014 presidential campaign, Poroshenko refused to argue with Tymoshenko and eventually lost the first round of the election, so Poroshenko paralyzed himself by alcoholism, so Zelenskiy's move made Poroshenko very embarrassed.
Zelenskiy may not have been in politics, but his campaign team is clearly a political veteran.
After the debate began, Zelenskiy did not look like a political amateur at all, and he fired a series of shots at Poroshenko's weaknesses in power, denouncing him for wasting Ukraine's "golden 5 years" and winning applause from the audience.
Poroshenko accused Zelenskiy of making "kneeling down to Putin" remarks in the hope of attacking the Ukrainian people's anti-Russian national sentiment.
And Zelenskiy used his strength to say to the audience all over Ukraine:
"I am ready to kneel to every mother who cannot wait for her son to return from the front, I am ready to kneel to every child who cannot wait for the return of his father, I am ready to kneel to every wife who cannot wait for the return of her husband, and I invite you to do so."
Then he knelt directly on his knees on the podium, and Poroshenko immediately knelt down when he saw it, but he turned his back on the audience and the camera.
This debate performance barely talked about anything that was really relevant to the Ukrainian people, but only compared and performed with each other, but the performance of Zelensky was "professional", especially the kneeling, which completely defeated Poroshenko in public opinion and announced Zelenskiy's final victory in advance.
Of course, the more important point is that the Ukrainian people are really tired. Before the 2014 color revolution, the Ukrainian government was corrupt and dark, and after the color revolution, it was still corrupt and dark, and even worse.
The people desperately want to change the status quo, without Zelenskiy, then the Ukrainians had to choose one of the two "garbage" that was not so bad, and zelenskiy's appearance gave ukrainians the illusion of "hope".
On April 21, 2019, the 41-year-old Zelenskiy was elected president of Ukraine and put in the world political arena, whether it is the most general politician or the leader of the country, his age is quite young.
Such a young president has no experience in politics, so from the beginning of his presidency, Zelenskiy has been called a "clown" and a "puppet" by the outside world.
It can be said that no one except the Ukrainian people is optimistic about Zelenskiy.
The "political elite" is Zelenskiy's cloak, a tool to attract votes, and the real Zelenskiy is not as clean as Ukrainians think.
Zelenskiy quickly launched anti-corruption and anti-oligarchic operations after coming to power, replacing more than 70 local administrators in one fell swoop, and establishing a new anti-corruption body, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine, all of which seemed so vigorous.
But what few people in Ukraine care about is that before this Ukrainian supreme anti-corruption court, Ukraine also had three anti-corruption agencies: the National Anti-Corruption Agency, the State Anti-Corruption Agency, and the State Anti-Corruption Specialized Prosecutor's Office.
The financiers, or direct controllers, behind the three institutions are the Soros Foundation (which supported the Ukrainian color revolution), the European Union, and the Republican Party of the United States.
Of course, the "Supreme Anti-Corruption Court" established by Zelenskiy is naturally not controlled by Ukrainians, and the boss behind it is the US Democratic Party.
Therefore, the so-called anti-corruption work in Ukraine is actually a conspiracy between various international institutions in Ukraine, and even a political struggle between the democratic and republican parties in the United States. For example, Trump's "Russiagate" was exposed in Ukraine, and Biden's son took bribes in Ukraine.
Therefore, the so-called anti-corruption is only a tool for liquidating political opponents.
As for Zelenskiy's anti-oligarchic actions, although Zelensky shouted loudly, There was a famous oligarchic "financial king" in Ukraine, Kolomoisky, who frequently profited from Zelensky's series of policies. And this Kolomoisky is the biggest "hero" of Zelensky's rise to power.
Kolomoisky and Poroshenko were allies in their early years, but the two later turned against each other, Poroshenko began to retaliate against Kolomoisky after being elected president, and in 2017, kolomoisky's private bank was nationalized under the name of "fraud", kolomoisky in order not to be exterminated, in order to avoid being exterminated, formed his own private army in the name of "resisting Russian invasion", and actually became a warlord.
In order to compete with Poroshenko for power, Kolomoisky took a fancy to Zelensky, and Zelenskiy's TV series "Servant of the People" was invested and produced by Kolomoyski's "1+1 TV Station", and the members of Zelenskiy's campaign team, as well as the main members of his "Servant of the People's Party", were mostly from "1+1 TV".
Kolomoisky
After the tv series "Servant of the People" was fired, "1+1 TV" aired season 2 in the key year of Poroshenko's administration in 2017 and season 3 in the 2019 election year, and Zelenskiy's popularity and call for election have been high for a long time.
From comedians to national presidents, Ukraine's presidential elections are magical. Through years of entertaining realpolitik issues, Zelenskiy has won the trust and support of the people by giving people a three-dimensional understanding of society from a new perspective.
Although there is a star-chasing nature, it is absurd and reasonable in the special context of Ukrainian society. Obviously, the star effect and the traffic exposure of the diversified stage transform commercial traffic into political propaganda, which is far more suitable for the dissemination of public opinion in modern society than the traditional speech encouragement of politicians.
Trump said yes.
But being elected president is only the first step, and the political arena and television programs are not the same after all.
When Zelenskiy was elected in 2019, Ukraine's per capita GDP was only $3,659, down from $4,029 in 2013; in 2017, more than 6 million ukrainian retirees had a monthly pension of less than 500 yuan; even university professors had to work four or five part-time jobs to afford the family's living expenses. It can be said that economic development continues to regress, which is a real problem that popularity cannot solve.
In 2020, Ukraine's annual agricultural production fell by 11.5% year-on-year, the annual GDP fell by 4.2% year-on-year, foreign investment in Ukraine fell by 38.2% year-on-year, total foreign trade fell by 6.4% year-on-year, total imports fell by 10.3% year-on-year, total exports fell by 1.7% year-on-year, and the foreign trade deficit reached 5 billion US dollars.
So in the second year after Zelenskiy's election, his poll approval rating dropped to 38 percent, a sharp drop that was enough to show Ukrainian dissatisfaction with Zelenskiy's ability to govern, but it was still much higher than other politicians.
Zelenskiy did almost nothing substantive after his election, the economy remained bad, the war was getting bigger and bigger, and Crimea not only did not take it back, but now even Kiev was in a precarious situation. Even if he held high the banner of anti-corruption, in the end Zelenskiy himself was rumored to be corrupt.
In fact, every Ukrainian government has promised to fight corruption during its campaign, but in the end it has inevitably become a beneficiary of corruption.
The struggle between oligarchs and foreign powers is undoubtedly the main cause of the current tragedy in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government, which is supported by oligarchs and foreign powers, is naturally only a pawn in the game of thrones.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has 42.7 million hectares of agricultural land, rich underground resources and incredible mineral resources, and eastern Ukraine has a heavy industrial zone during the Soviet era, a world-famous aircraft design and manufacturing plant, a shipyard, mastering the most advanced aerospace technology in the Soviet Union, and also has the number of nuclear bombs second only to the United States and Russia, as well as conventional armaments that Russia is afraid of.
There is no doubt that ukraine at the time of its independence was a military power, a nuclear power, a big agricultural country, an industrial power, and a resource power.
Today, it is one of the poorest countries in Europe, and every year countless young Ukrainians choose to flee their homeland; many women choose to surrogate for foreign rich people in order to live, so Ukraine is called the "European womb" by some Western Europeans.
Ukraine's internal divisions have intensified with various domestic and foreign struggles, with Ukrainian politicians coming to power on anti-Russian populism, but there are still a considerable number of ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, and even Zelenskiy, a Jew born in the east, speaks more Russian than Ukrainian.
Although Ukraine has advanced technology and strong production capacity, but these things were originally for the Soviet Union supporting services, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine itself can not digest the production capacity, Europe can not provide the market, so in fact, the eastern industrial zone is still very dependent on Russian orders, eastern Ukraine must be pro-Russian.
It can be said that after the pro-Western government came to power in 2014 using irregular procedures to seize power, the division of Ukraine was doomed. Zelenskiy, as the populist elected president after the color revolution, even if he did not have the background of oligarch support, there was no way to change the situation in Ukraine, and he was destined to be a tragic president.
But for now, even before the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, even Zelenskiy had achieved almost nothing, and Zelenskiy's approval rating was relatively high compared with others.
After the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Zelenskiy, as president of Ukraine, was actually very competent in terms of performance, did not surrender, did not flee (at least for now there is no evidence that he has left Kiev), insisted on speaking, inspired the resistance of the people, and lived a modern Churchill appearance.
His acting talent has once again exploded with a strong political appeal in a special context, and the Ukrainians, who previously put the hope of re-establishing the country on him, now talk about the hope of confrontation with Russia, have placed their support on him, so the support rate has soared.
In fact, the Western countries do not particularly like Zelensky, first, his financier Kolomoisky is not particularly pro-Western among the Ukrainian oligarchs, and belongs to the wall; second, Zelensky's recent limelight has indeed robbed the West, and the Western countries now play a supporter, not a savior.
But in the current situation, the West has to vigorously support zelenskiy, but also help to publicize Zelensky, so that Zelensky's status is greatly improved at home and abroad, reaching the peak of his political career. It can be said that Zelenskiy has accumulated a considerable amount of political capital, and this will have a huge impact on Zelenskiy after the war, which may not be able to judge whether it is a blessing or a curse for the West.
Someone once asked, I don't know if Zelenskiy now regrets playing this president? It can only be said that at present, he is still quite "happy" with fame and fortune.
Ukrainians hope that the comedian will change the tragic stage in Ukraine, but they may not know that the Chinese sketch actor Chen Peisi famously said: "The core of comedy is tragedy."
From the world's third-largest nuclear power at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union to the poorest country in Europe today. Ukraine is seen as a pawn and a joke in other countries, and the comedians' appearance on stage is nothing more than a joke.
Zelenskiy continued his comedy performances, only to go from being a funny actor on the screen to a show president in politics, always performing, and the core of Ukrainian tragedy has not changed.