ZELENSKIY: SERVANT OF THE TELEVISION

A month or two ago, while the media in Australia was at a peak 
level of obsession with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, SBS put on a 
documentary about him. Sorry, I don't remember the name (looking 
around online, it was probably "Zelenskyy: The Story"), but it 
absolutely reeked of propaganda and naturally never had a bad word 
to say about the man.

As I've already vaguely mentioned here (a fact that I remember 
because I wouldn't dare do so publicly at the moment if I weren't 
writing anonymously), I think that Zelenskiy's actions quite 
pointlessly triggered the war in Ukraine to the distinct 
disadvantage of his country. Ideally I'll agree that a country 
should be allowed to join whatever allegiances it decides, be they
Ukraine with NATO or, gulp, the Solomon Islands with China [1].
However the actions of Zelenskiy pursuing NATO membership even
after it was clear that NATO forces wouldn't jump directly to his
country's defence in the likely event of an immediate Russian 
invasion, were ridiculous. They are nevertheless in keeping with 
his deeply popularist tendencies.

So the documentary was, as expected, very frustrating to watch. Yet 
reading between the lines there were some interesting facts there 
to be picked up. Only today have I got around to digging into some 
of them.

What I did know was that he was famous for starring in some 
comedy/drama type show called "Servant of the People" (which I now 
see is _also_ the name of Zelenskiy's political party), where he 
played a school teacher who becomes president. What I didn't 
realise was that he kept on making new episodes of this, playing 
himself as the president in the show's fictional world where Putin 
eventually gets kicked out of power in Russia, at the _same_ _time_ 
as he was campaigning for the real presidential election. So people 
are watching this fantasy of a successful president on a prime TV 
channel while at the same time they're being asked to vote for the 
guy playing him. And guess what, the same guy who put him on the TV 
was also Zelenskiy's main political backer, billionaire Ukrainian 
media magnate, Ihor Kolomoyskyi. Kolomoyskyi had at this point 
himself spent years riding off hostile actions by the billionare 
former president, and rival TV channel owner, Petro Poroshenko.

Basically what Kolomoyskyi has done here is show what Rupert 
Murdoch could do if he really had balls. The power that Murdoch has 
in pushing figures like Donald Trump through his media empire 
including Fox News is commonly pointed out in wider media. Yet in 
Ukraine, the real story of Zelenskiy's rise shows it taken to the 
next level.

If you think that people in general are smart enough to know the 
difference between a fictional TV show and a real presidential 
candidate even when they're both being shown on the same TV, then I 
don't think you've paid much attention to the sort of fickle stuff 
that swings political campaigns everywhere. The most scary part of 
all this is that I really think it could happen in any democracy. 
Certainly including here in Australia.

After getting into power, Zelenskiy introduced new laws limiting 
the licencing of media companies in order to eliminate sources of 
alleged disinformation. This of course is a perfect basis by which 
Kolomoyskyi could ensure dominence of his own media empire, and 
sure enough it forced Petro Poroshenko to sell both of his TV 
networks. [2]

Also once Zelenskiy was in office, the leader of the most popular 
opposition party in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk, was sanctioned and 
then charged with terrorism offences and put under house arrest, on 
the basis of the pro-Russian politician's dealings in 
Russian-annexed Crimea. Then, once the war started, his party was 
among eleven allegedly Russian-allied Ukrainian political parties 
that were banned altogether. This, following an earlier ban on 
communist parties years before, eliminates the left from Ukrainian 
politics entirely. [3]

The Pandora Papers leak also revealed that Zelenskiy along with 
friends and associates from his production company, Kvartal 95, 
were linked in 2021 to a network of offshore business in tax 
havens. Shortly before the elections, Zelenskiy gave away a stake 
in the company Maltex, based in the British Virgin Islands, but 
future dividends from Maltex were still to be paid to another 
company owned by his wife. An ally of Poroshenko had earlier 
alleged large transfers totalling $41 million into these companies, 
from entities owned by Kolomoyskyi, between 2012 and 2016. [4]

Vlod Vs Vlad

At this point it's interesting to look at the similarities between 
leaders both sides of the Russia-Ukraine border. Volodymyr 
Zelenskiy in fact seems to have a lot in common with Vladimir Putin:

* Both first get into power only thanks to the backing of oligarchs 
  with big media stakes.

* Both claim to combat corruption rampant prior to their coming to 
  power, even at the expense of their oligarch backers, but seem to 
  maintain a secret private wealth for themselves and their friends.

* Both arrest the leader of the main opposition party in their 
  country.

* Both introduce laws that restrict the ownership and content of 
  popular media.

* Both push a nationalist and assertive foreign political adjenda, 
  leading indeed to the present war between their countries.

In spite of these similarities, one man is portreyed to us as an 
angel and the other as the devil. In fact Zelenskiy has been 
trusted by the US with many tens of billions of dollars worth of 
'security-assistance' since the war began. More military funding 
than the US ever sent to Afghanistan, Iraq or Israel in a single 
year. [5]

Without having any personal experience in Ukraine, or even a deep 
interest in the country's politics prior to the war, I certainly 
wouldn't claim to have a full understanding of Ukrainian politics 
now. However I frankly doubt that many foreign leaders who've 
thrown their backing behind Zelenskiy, especially the Australian 
ones, have a much clearer picture. Ukraine has been fit within a 
traditional East Vs West narrative which Zelenskiy plays to 
perfectly, starring now on teleconferenced TV before the world's 
Western leaders. But at the same time the old Cold War mistake of 
forgetting to check whether our friend is really any nicer than our 
enemy, seems it might be in the making once again.

 - The Free Thinker

[1] The latter of course being Australia's current 'Ukraine 
moment'. Somehow the media here didn't have the courage to point 
out the incredible irony of our former PM talking about Australia's 
"red line" with a Chinese presence in the Solomon Islands while 
at the same time being outraged at Russia's reaction to Ukraine 
attempting to join NATO. 
 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-24/scott-morrison-china-naval-base-solomon-islands-red-line/101011710

[2] 
 https://www.voanews.com/a/press-freedom_journalists-see-specter-censorship-ukraines-proposed-media-laws/6183766.html
 https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/ukrainian-court-freezes-property-ex-president-poroshenko-2022-01-06/

[3] 
 https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/21/why-did-ukraine-suspend-11-pro-russia-parties

[4] 
 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy

[5] 
 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/05/14/ukraine-weapons-trafficking/