Berliner Boersenzeitung - Ukraine's comedian-turned-president stars in crisis

EUR -
AED 4.193406
AFN 79.917074
ALL 96.300466
AMD 438.198526
ANG 2.043257
AOA 1046.916871
ARS 1565.741261
AUD 1.774994
AWG 2.057872
AZN 1.940077
BAM 1.951034
BBD 2.304152
BDT 139.508014
BGN 1.955809
BHD 0.430466
BIF 3359.382581
BMD 1.141676
BND 1.48087
BOB 7.885669
BRL 6.396127
BSD 1.141302
BTN 99.946992
BWP 15.583798
BYN 3.734645
BYR 22376.855938
BZD 2.292281
CAD 1.581622
CDF 3299.444466
CHF 0.927958
CLF 0.028308
CLP 1110.50673
CNY 8.220584
CNH 8.230334
COP 4778.611836
CRC 576.686326
CUC 1.141676
CUP 30.254423
CVE 109.543994
CZK 24.578347
DJF 202.898521
DKK 7.463612
DOP 69.64217
DZD 149.472826
EGP 55.459553
ERN 17.125145
ETB 157.78561
FJD 2.593656
FKP 0.860147
GBP 0.864243
GEL 3.084071
GGP 0.860147
GHS 11.998416
GIP 0.860147
GMD 82.773336
GNF 9904.042035
GTQ 8.764515
GYD 238.754723
HKD 8.961645
HNL 30.082802
HRK 7.53712
HTG 149.7529
HUF 400.054998
IDR 18826.242572
ILS 3.872595
IMP 0.860147
INR 99.885205
IQD 1495.595984
IRR 48078.850136
ISK 142.207228
JEP 0.860147
JMD 182.603969
JOD 0.809399
JPY 172.089453
KES 147.838587
KGS 99.839601
KHR 4583.830779
KMF 492.630422
KPW 1027.444399
KRW 1590.27494
KWD 0.349501
KYD 0.950969
KZT 616.319171
LAK 24637.374543
LBP 102237.114851
LKR 344.864608
LRD 229.476916
LSL 20.561874
LTL 3.371074
LVL 0.690589
LYD 6.182181
MAD 10.393876
MDL 19.650828
MGA 5057.626203
MKD 61.409462
MMK 2396.579775
MNT 4097.870218
MOP 9.22738
MRU 45.461995
MUR 52.748042
MVR 17.586099
MWK 1982.527973
MXN 21.56124
MYR 4.869255
MZN 73.021888
NAD 20.561967
NGN 1747.278828
NIO 41.956236
NOK 11.80543
NPR 159.914988
NZD 1.936768
OMR 0.439038
PAB 1.141202
PEN 4.074653
PGK 4.715408
PHP 66.508308
PKR 323.379865
PLN 4.277804
PYG 8547.047981
QAR 4.156558
RON 5.073841
RSD 117.179097
RUB 92.603702
RWF 1644.013906
SAR 4.282743
SBD 9.412166
SCR 16.151494
SDG 685.572191
SEK 11.217849
SGD 1.482123
SHP 0.897178
SLE 26.25845
SLL 23940.386168
SOS 652.465219
SRD 42.031386
STD 23630.394858
STN 25.031253
SVC 9.985522
SYP 14843.540389
SZL 20.561312
THB 37.412635
TJS 10.76142
TMT 4.007284
TND 3.287923
TOP 2.673917
TRY 46.417359
TTD 7.748007
TWD 34.156631
TZS 2934.108775
UAH 47.604005
UGX 4090.971495
USD 1.141676
UYU 45.768206
UZS 14390.830354
VES 141.249993
VND 29910.777995
VUV 136.205118
WST 3.149333
XAF 654.352936
XAG 0.031092
XAU 0.000347
XCD 3.085437
XCG 2.056776
XDR 0.791649
XOF 646.758539
XPF 119.331742
YER 274.744595
ZAR 20.796756
ZMK 10276.453621
ZMW 26.218728
ZWL 367.61931
  • RBGPF

    0.3900

    74.42

    +0.52%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • RYCEF

    1.0800

    14.18

    +7.62%

  • CMSC

    0.2500

    22.85

    +1.09%

  • BCC

    -1.0800

    83.81

    -1.29%

  • SCS

    0.0000

    10.33

    0%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    51.89

    +0.21%

  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • NGG

    0.2000

    70.39

    +0.28%

  • RIO

    0.2800

    59.77

    +0.47%

  • BCE

    -0.2000

    23.33

    -0.86%

  • CMSD

    0.2100

    23.27

    +0.9%

  • VOD

    -0.2500

    10.81

    -2.31%

  • AZN

    -3.5000

    73.09

    -4.79%

  • GSK

    -1.8200

    37.15

    -4.9%

  • BTI

    0.5200

    53.68

    +0.97%

  • BP

    -0.1000

    32.15

    -0.31%

Ukraine's comedian-turned-president stars in crisis
Ukraine's comedian-turned-president stars in crisis

Ukraine's comedian-turned-president stars in crisis

He was the comic from Ukrainian TV who implausibly became president.

Text size:

But Volodymyr Zelensky could be having the last laugh as Russia begins pulling back forces from Ukraine's frontiers without staging an attack -- just as he had told Washington they would.

The fresh-faced 44-year-old became president of Ukraine in time to witness the gravest standoff between the Kremlin and Western powers since the end of the Cold War more than three decades ago.

He watched Russia surround his country with more than 100,000 soldiers and Washington warn in increasingly shrill tones that a war was "imminent" and could begin "any day".

Zelensky took it all in and did what he knew best: he told his nation of more than 40 million people to relax and plan a party.

"What should we do? Only one thing -- keep calm," he said last month.

"We will celebrate Easter in April. And then in May, the same as always -- the sun, holidays, barbeques," he said. "And before long, it's summer."

Then he declared February 16 -- the day some US officials picked as a possible start for President Vladimir Putin's assault -- a national "unity day" holiday on which people should come out with flags and balloons.

- 'Not that bad' -

Zelensky ran for president seemingly as a joke in 2019.

He catapulted to fame by playing a foul-mouthed school teacher on TV who became president after one of his students filmed his profane rant against corruption and posted it online.

The evening comedy show became a huge hit just as the country was gripped by cataclysmic change.

Ukraine's 2014 pro-EU revolution ousted a Kremlin-backed leader and brought in a new team that had to grapple with a spiralling conflict in the east and an economy teetering toward collapse.

Ukrainians watched the president on the comedy show make crude jokes to his wife and pedal to work with a startled look of panic.

It captured the zeitgeist -- and made Zelensky a small fortune.

He defeated Petro Poroshenko -- an incumbent mired by crises on all sides -- in a runoff by winning more than 70 percent of the vote.

But some Ukrainians braced for the worst. His critics compared him unfavourably to celebrity politicians such as Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and then US president Donald Trump.

His early decision to fill his team with members of his Kvartal 95 TV production company did little to build public confidence.

Zelensky's initial media appearances with other world leaders looked stilted.

"I think our international partners have a fairly difficult time dealing with him. He is not on their level," said Ukrainian political analyst Mykola Davydyuk.

"They are playing at a very high level that he cannot reach -- and cannot understand."

But some Western diplomats appear taken by his charm.

"He hasn't done that bad, to be honest," one diplomat said.

"He has an impossible job. He is stuck, under pressure from both the Russians and the Americans," the diplomat said.

"He has shown composure."

- Defining moment -

The standoff with Russia over Ukraine's dream of joining NATO -- aspirationally written into the constitution but unlikely to happen in the coming decades -- could well define Zelensky's presidency for the coming years.

He came to power attempting to open lines of communication with Putin that could finally resolve the bloody separatist conflict after claiming more than 14,000 lives.

The two held a Parisian summit a few months after Zelensky's election that Putin hailed as an "important step".

But Zelensky read from a different script at his own post-summit media event.

"My counterparts have said it is a very good result for a first meeting. But I will be honest -- it is very little," he said.

Relations between the two men have been deteriorating ever since.

Putin has accused Zelensky's government of "discriminating" against Russian-speakers and reneging on past promises for settling the eastern conflict.

Zelensky's offer of a three-way summit with Putin and US President Joe Biden fell on deaf ears in Moscow last month.

But some analysts think Zelensky's stature has grown in the past few weeks.

"If Russia doesn't escalate and reduces its posture near Ukraine, it will likely be a little embarrassing for the US intelligence community, but it will also bolster Zelensky's position," the Foreign Policy Research Institute's senior fellow Rob Lee said.

"He didn't back down and NATO defence support increased."

(T.Burkhard--BBZ)