Ukraine election: Comedian Zelensky wins presidency by landslide

[Dashinka 24,751]

Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky has scored a landslide victory in the country's presidential election.

With nearly all ballots counted in the run-off vote, Mr Zelensky had taken more than 73% with incumbent Petro Poroshenko trailing far behind on 24%.

"I will never let you down," Mr Zelensky told celebrating supporters. 

Russia says it wants him to show "sound judgement", "honesty" and "pragmatism" so that relations can improve. Russia backs separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The comments came from Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in a Facebook post on Monday (in Russian).

He said he expected Mr Zelensky to "repeat familiar ideological formulas" that he used in the election campaign, adding: "I have no illusions on that score.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Wow.

[Dashinka 24,751]

42 minutes ago, ALFKAD said:

Wow.

No kidding.  I wonder if the Russians will get any similar ideas at their next election?

[Steeleballz 7,550]

 

  He has no political experience, but he did play the role of president on TV. 

[OriZ 3,157]

When the Ukranians call their elections a joke, they mean it literally.

[Boiler 45,993]

We have Beto.

[millefleur 5,047]

13 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

No kidding.  I wonder if the Russians will get any similar ideas at their next election?

 

Ahhh.....good one! No, nope. Nothing like this will happen in Russia. Believe me.

[TBoneTX 46,015]

4 hours ago, Boiler said:

We have Beto.

Beeto, Beeto (dumb bum dumb bum)

Beeto, Beeto (dumb bum dumb bum)

 

Don't forget Lie-awatha (Fauxcahontas), either.

[Dashinka 24,751]

9 hours ago, millefleur said:

 

Ahhh.....good one! No, nope. Nothing like this will happen in Russia. Believe me.

I asked the wife the other day about this since Putin is wrapping up his second time of two consecutive terms.  I asked if Medvedev would serve another term as preseident with Putin as PM to meet the Russian Constitution.  She thinks the constitution will most likely be changed.  Regardless, from what I see, Putin is very popular with most Russians. 

[millefleur 5,047]

6 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

I asked the wife the other day about this since Putin is wrapping up his second time of two consecutive terms.  I asked if Medvedev would serve another term as preseident with Putin as PM to meet the Russian Constitution.  She thinks the constitution will most likely be changed.  Regardless, from what I see, Putin is very popular with most Russians. 

During my years as an English teacher in Russia, I got the impression that Russians as a majority hate talking about politics and view it as a cesspool for corrupt and selfish people. They are very fatalistic about it and don't have the sense of politicians as good people or "one of us" like a lot of Americans have been raised to believe since democracy is a tradition here. I would say the vast majority of Russians tolerate Putin, they just seem him as a lesser evil to someone even more corrupt and convince themselves that this is how it is. Medvedev is actively hated by most people, he's seen as an incompetent idiot whereas Putin is at least viewed as intelligent and quasi-respectable. I used to have these English "conversation clubs" and a couple times I tried to have politics as a theme, every time it was met with a collective groan by the Russians as they saw it was a depressing topic and didn't even want to discuss it for one minute.

 

The only Russians I met who enjoyed discussing politics and had very strong opinions about politics were opposition supporters. Often times they idealize the West and just want to bash Russia non-stop, it's rare to meet a patriotic Russian who is also critical of Russia's government. People in Russia accept Putin vastly because they view him as having made life better since the dark 1990's and basically the general attitude is "Well, could be worse, at least it isn't the 1990's again." It's all very fatalistic.