Man: Let’s rehearse.
Woman:
Rehearsal. Ready
everyone. Silence on the set...
Simon
Ostrovsky: Could
this man be Ukraine’s next president?
Meet Volodymyr Zelensky.
Actor, comedian, and heading into tomorrow’s election, the most popular candidate
in the polls.
Here he is filming his
hit TV show “Servant of the People” in which he plays - you guessed it - the
President of Ukraine.
Zelensky’s character
starts out as an ordinary history teacher
[“Servant of the People”
clip, courtesy Studio Kvartal 95]
Zelensky
playing Vasily Holoborodko: What’s going on here? Everyone, calm. Everyone! Sit down.
Simon
Ostrovsky: But
he accidentally wins the presidential election after his angry rant about
government corruption gets uploaded by a pupil and goes viral.
[“Servant of the People”
clip]
Zelensky
playing Vasily Holoborodko: Hello.
Prime
Minister: Vasily Petrovich
Holoborodko?
Zelensky
playing Vasily Holoborodko: Yes.
Prime
Minister: Good Morning, Mr.
President.
Simon
Ostrovsky: Now,
not only is he running to be the real thing, he’s named his political party
“Servant of the People” as well. It’s as if Martin Sheen ran for
president and registered a party called “The West Wing.”
Like his character,
Zelensky is mostly waging his campaign online, and avoiding debates with his
opponents. It’s a departure from the methods of the party bosses and oligarchs
that have run this country since independence from the Soviet Union.
Volodymyr
Zelensky [talking into
smartphone]: I’m taking a swing at the elites and running for president so
they’re calling me a clown. I am a clown and I’m very proud of it.
Simon
Ostrovsky: A
candidacy like Zelensky’s would have been unimaginable just five years ago.
Then, an anti-corruption protest turned into a revolution that led to the
election of a former government minister and powerful oligarch, Petro
Poroshenko. Poroshenko now faces corruption allegations of his own.
Cut back to the
fictional president. He’s about to take the oath of office when he has a
vision: the philosopher Plato and other historical figures are giving this
inexperienced everyman advice on how to run a country.
Plato:
Power is the art of
management.
Simon
Ostrovsky: It’s
a little on the nose for a candidate whose critics say lack of political experience
is his biggest weakness.
Simon
Ostrovsky: The
scene you’re filming today makes me think that maybe you’re worried that you
actually might become president.
Volodymyr
Zelensky, Presidential Candidate (translated from Ukrainian): No. I’m not worried. Why
shouldn’t I win? I will.
Simon
Ostrovsky: To
many, the prospect of a political novice in the presidency is no laughing
matter.
Simon
Ostrovsky: You’re an actor with no
political experience, your country is at war with Russia. Vladimir Putin, 20
years at the helm. How are you going to deal with Vladimir Putin?
Volodymyr
Zelensky: First of all, we will
do everything to make sure that Vladimir Putin never ends up at the helm of our
country. The main problem in our relationship with Russia is the war. No one
has a real answer, how to stop Putin. All we can do is continue talks to achieve
a ceasefire.
Simon
Ostrovsky: Achieve
a ceasefire and rely on assistance from ukraine’s allies in the West. In that,
his platform doesn’t differ from those of the other main candidates, and the
polling is close.
Until recently, it was
supposed to be a two-person battle between the current president and Yulia
Tymoshenko, whose candidacy represents a remarkable comeback.
Woman (in Ukrainian): Yulia is our president!
Simon
Ostrovsky: Before
the 2014 revolution she served as prime minister. But in 2011, she was
imprisoned under Ukraine’s pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych on charges of
exceeding her authority in signing a gas supply deal with Russia. She says the
charges were politically motivated.
Crowd:
Tymoshenko! Tymoshenko!
Simon
Ostrovsky: But
her message to Ukrainian voters doesn’t focus on the past president. It focuses
on the alleged corruption of the current president, Poroshenko .
His associates were
recently accused of overcharging the government to the tune of tens of millions
of dollars worth of military equipment and pocketing the proceeds. Under the
alleged scheme, a former director of a Poroshenko-owned company was put in a government
position that allowed him to approve purchases of components for military
equipment. His son then created an intermediary company which sold the parts to
state-owned defense manufacturers at sometimes quadruple their market value.
Some of the parts were reportedly defective.
Yulia
Tymoshenko, Presidential Candidate: The kickbacks, the laundering and most importantly, the damage
to our defense capability - have all been documented. The whole world is
shocked and scandalized!
Poroshenko refused a Newshour
Weekend interview request. He responded to the scandal by firing the official
implicated and promised a transparent investigation.
President
Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine, March 4 (translated from Ukrainian): If guilt is
proven, neither your position, your connections, your last name nor even your
old friendship with the president will save you.
Simon
Ostrovsky: So
where does the United States stand on the Ukrainian election? U.S. Special
Envoy Kurt Volker insists Washington isn’t backing a candidate to win. He
does, though, point out who Russia would like to see lose.
Kurt
Volker, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine, March 18: I think it is true – in fact, it’s not only
true, it’s something that Russia itself has said – that they want to see Poroshenko
defeated, and that’s simply a fact. I think that there has just been a
development of personal animosity between President Putin and President
Poroshenko, and so he’s just looking for a change.
Simon
Ostrovsky: And
the change candidate in this election cycle is represented by the newcomer:
Zelensky. When he’s not getting advice from Plato he’s talking to informal
advisors like Serhiy Leshchenko, a former investigative journalist turned
reformist lawmaker. He says Zelensky’s inexperience is his greatest asset.
Serhiy
Leshchenko: This
is not a black and white situation when his lack of experience is a problem.
People wait [for] him to behave as his protagonist in the movie and if he
behaves as his protagonist he can be successful as a president.
Simon
Ostrovsky: In
the TV show, Zelensky’s protagonist takes on Ukraine’s notoriously powerful
coterie of oligarchs.
[“Servant of the People”
clip]
Zelensky
playing Vasily Holoborodko: Instead of serving the people, you’re serving the oligarchs!
Simon
Ostrovsky: But
real life is a little different. “Servant of the People” is broadcast on
a channel owned by Ihor Kolomoyskyi, one of the country’s most influential
oligarchs.
Simon
Ostrovsky: Your
TV show appears on a channel owned by one of the oligarchs running Ukraine. Can
you really pretend to voters that you’re
as independent as your
character is in the show?
Volodymyr
Zelensky:There is not a single TV
channel that doesn’t belong to one oligarchic group or another. But the channel
doesn’t even have exclusive use of my face.
Simon
Ostrovsky: Zelensky’s
character in “Servant of the People” faces a choice just as he’s about to take
the oath of office. His choices are to rule either through trickery and deceit
- or - take the path of honesty and decency. The campaign is banking on
Ukraine’s people believing the real Zelensky will choose option two.
####
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TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
00:16 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
2 |
00:31 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
3 |
00:46 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
4 |
01:08 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
5 |
01:47 |
KIEV JANUARY 2014 |
6 |
02:07 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
7 |
02:38 |
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE |
8 |
04:30 |
BIHUS.INFO |
9 |
05:11 |
YULIA TYMOSHENKO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE |
10 |
05:31 |
MARCH 6 PRESIDENT PETRO POROSHENKO UKRAINE |
11 |
05:51 |
MARCH 8 U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT VIDEO |
12 |
05:57 |
KURT VOLKER US SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR UKRAINE |
13 |
06:16 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
14 |
06:52 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
15 |
07:06 |
ANTI-ZELENSKY AD |
16 |
08:04 |
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE |
17 |
07:46 |
(credit) STUDIO KVARTAL 95 |
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