If there’s one thing Volodymyr Zelenskiy seems to have learned from playing a fictional Ukrainian president on television, it’s that you shouldn’t make any firm commitments if you want to gain power for real.
The 41-year-old comic starred in stand-up routines, sketches and musical numbers while rival candidates in the country’s presidential election paced stages pledging things Ukrainians have long since stopped believing. Besides a promise to clean up one of Europe’s most corrupt nations, actual policies were all but absent during his campaign.
With polls showing life about to imitate art for Zelenskiy in this weekend’s run-off vote, what he would do as president remains hazy in a country on the geopolitical fault line between east and west and whose future is so critical to the world order.
Morgan Stanley called him “something of a mystery” for financial markets. Risk consultancy Eurasia Group said it was uncertain how he would approach the International Monetary Fund as well as economic and political reforms. But for many Ukrainians jaded by kleptocracy and hardship, it doesn’t matter, making Zelenskiy the latest wildcard in a volatile region.
“There was an opening for a new type of candidate from outside the existing political system and Zelenskiy has used this opportunity perfectly,” said Thomas Eymond‑Laritaz, managing director at public strategy firm Mercury who advised two previous Ukrainian governments. “While other candidates were debating ideas, Zelenskiy’s program remained extremely vague and his campaign focused on his personality as a new and untainted leader.”
Ukraine remains locked in a conflict with Russia-backed forces and reliant on billions of dollars of aid from the U.S. and Europe. After two revolutions, most Ukrainians say their country is on the wrong track. Zelenskiy has called his lack of political experience a “big fat plus.”
Unlike Italian comedian-turned-populist Beppe Grillo, Zelenskiy is more about the theatrical than the political, his razzmatazz deployed via TV, social media and in live shows. He now faces incumbent Petro Poroshenko on April 21 after gaining almost twice the proportion of votes in the first round.
“I don’t want to vote for old candidates,” said Artem Kozlenko, a 22-year-old waiter attending Zelenskiy’s show last month in the city of Brovary and who’s voting for the first time. “I want things to change. This is like a vote ‘against all.’ The last hope.”
Indeed, there have been broad assurances to end the war in the east, maintain Ukraine’s pro-European trajectory and press for the return of the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. Also, Zelenskiy doesn’t want to do anything that would torpedo cooperation with the IMF. He says referendums will decide key issues, and pledges to step down after one term to return to the entertainment business.
But specifics are hard to come by. Conversations with advisers helping Zelenskiy suggest he isn’t simply keeping his cards close to his chest – rather, he’s yet to determine exactly what he wants to do if he wins. The rapid expansion of his inner circle has raised more questions.