Comedian-Actor leading Ukraine’s presidential polls

KYIV -- Staring straight into his smartphone and speaking in the guttural voice that has helped distinguish him as Ukraine's top funnyman, Volodymyr Zelenskyy asks his 2.7 million Instagram followers: "Who likes when the president appoints his cronies or army comrades to top positions? Why has this been happening for 28 years?"

Then Zelenskyy offers a unique solution: "Let's create a dream team.... Suggest who, in your opinion, should be the prime minister of Ukraine, the prosecutor-general, the head of the security service, the foreign minister, the defense minister, we will do it together."

The proposition may have been taken as another of his jokes a year ago. But today, it is no laughing matter.

In a life-imitating-art moment, the 41-year-old comedian whose schoolteacher character on a hit TV sitcom becomes Ukraine's president after a video rant goes viral, is the front-runner in its actual presidential race.

The first-round vote is slated for March 31, and there are a record 44 candidates on the ballot. Unless one wins an outright majority -- something polls suggest is unlikely -- the top two finishers will face off on April 21.

At stake for a country mired in economic woes and corruption and embroiled in a war with Russia-backed fighters that has dragged on for nearly five years, is possibly its survival.

By Ukrainian standards, Zelenskyy's campaign style, which amounts to touring with his comedy troupe and addressing followers in selfie videos on social media, is highly unorthodox.

In many ways, but especially on social media, Zelenskyy's is a strategy that aims to capitalize on the kind of frustration that helped propel political outsider Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency and, more recently, "socialist" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the U.S. Congress.

“The Russians were just fine with the Ukraine as a buffer zone.”

No, they weren’t.

On October 21, 2008 Sarah Palin accurately assessed the Russian threat to Ukraine (and this was before the Maidan) and she said:

“After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Sen. Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next.”

She said this because Russia even in 2008 was posturing to invade Ukraine and the Ukrainian leadership was aware of the threat at the time.

Comedian-Actor Zelensky is accused of being a "puppet" of oligarch Kolomoisky.

"Zelensky has faced similar claims that he is the stooge of the billionaire banker Ihor Kolomoisky, who is an enemy of Poroshenko.

The Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) a Warsaw-based think tank, has said Kolomoisky hopes a good result for Zelensky will help him send deputies allied to him to Ukraine's parliament in the elections in October, increasing his influence in the country.

“Kolomoisky is the main opponent of Petro Poroshenko, and has been seeking revenge for the revenues his businesses have lost by supporting the main candidates for the presidency, namely Tymoshenko, and now Zelensky,” OSW wrote.

Zelensky's shows are aired on the television channel owned by Igor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s most powerful oligarchs, though Mr Zelensky denies that Mr Kolomoisky is backing his campaign."

https://www.newsweek.com/volodymyr-zelenskiy-servant-people-ukraine-presidential-election-1322065

The issue is mostly of commercial nature.

It makes more than half of the whole problem.

For a long time Russia enjoyed a fair share of European hydrocarbons market. It did so from about 1970s when it was a Soviet Union and it always was a reliable supplier despite all the political issues between USSR and the West and nobody have seen a single problem.

Then around 2000 or slightly earlier appeared an idea that Russia is a ‘monopoly’ for European energy at it should be addressed by establishing alternative energy routes bypassing or cutting Russia off the market.

Of course the monopoly thing was a lie when as it is now.

Mind the timing. It has started to develop in a period when Russia and US enjoyed somehow perfect relations and it is the first time some concern trolls have started to mind ‘bad developments’ inside Russia.

Another important point is that nobody in Europe have seen the problem of ‘energy independence’ mostly because of the fact that they indeed have diverse supply. It was mostly a problem for Arab Kingdoms and US politicians and journalists on their payroll.

Then happened regime changes in Georgia which it an important point of alternative Nabucco pipeline bypassing ‘bad Russia’ and Ukraine which is a major point in the transit of ‘bad Russian energy’ to Europe.

The ‘unreliable Russian supply’ myth peddled by paid propagandists immediately started to come to fruition by actions of a new regime using any opportunity to disrupt it. It continued for quite some time until pro-Western regime was chased out of office due to the fact that they spent more time being anti-Russian than actually being pro-Ukrainian and ruined national economy while doing so.

Pro-Western Georgian puppet was voted out and exiled during that period and for the same reason too.

It seemed like things are back to normal but the bad guys never give up.

Then came the Arab Spring. First they knocked out Libya which was another independent supplier of hydrocarbons for Europe. Then they came after Syria which was another Georgia-alike and an alternative route. Syria turned out to be a hard nut to crack so they hit Ukraine again and had a regime change installing another anti-Russian regime there.

No Russian actions regarding this issues indicate ‘imperialism’. It is purely a defence of legitimate economic interests.

Regarding Ukraine it is clearly visible that none of Russian action are aimed at establishing control over it but the opposite is true. They simply accepted the fact that Ukraine would be an anti-Russian puppet for quite some time and spent enormous resources over last five years to adopt to this fact. It doesn’t make any sense with plans of takeover in mind.

Alternative pipelines getting built for pumping gas directly to Western Europe are the best clue. The spin put on it as a tool to ‘choke’ Ukraine to make it rip for takeover is beyond ridiculous. With new pipelines Russian export would not be dependent on Ukraine anymore reducing its value for Russia no near zero. Unfortunately for Ukraine their value for their NWO masters would reduce to about the same value too.

It is especially funny to see efforts by NWO to protect current status. Namely DASKA and DASKA2 acts pushed by Linda Graham through Congress.

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