One morning a history teacher wakes up in Kiev to find himself elected president of Ukraine—thanks to a video secretly recorded by a pupil and uploaded to YouTube. It shows the teacher cursing Ukraine’s political class for their lies and its people for their indifference. “Our politicians don’t know history, but they are brilliant mathematicians: they all know how to add, divide and multiply their wealth,” he tells a colleague. The video goes viral, and a local oligarch-prime minister backs him in the hope of gaining a puppet. Instead, the new president imprisons the oligarch and goes after his cronies.
This is the plot of “Servant of the People”, a satirical television show that first aired in 2015. Since then 20m people—half of Ukraine’s population—have tuned in. Ironically, it plays on a channel owned by Igor Kolomoisky, an oligarch. Less amusing is that Vladimir Zelensky, the comedian who plays the teacher, is in some polls Ukraine’s second most popular presidential candidate, beaten only by Yulia Tymoshenko, a veteran populist. Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent, scores just 5%. The election may not be until next March, but the jostling for power is in full swing.
