by fjallstrom
Mon Nov 26th, 2018 at 03:20:17 PM EST
In todays news:
Tension escalates after Russia seizes Ukraine naval ships
Russia has fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels off the Crimean Peninsula in a major escalation of tensions between the two countries.
Two gunboats and a tug were captured by Russian forces. A number of Ukrainian crew members were injured.
Each country blames the other for the incident. On Monday Ukrainian MPs are due to vote on declaring martial law.
(My bold)
If one is a bit conspirational minded, one might reflect on how this conflict and the declaration of martial law reflects on the upcoming Ukrainian elections. And then one starts checking the polls, and it gets interesting.
In 2019, Ukraine has presidential elections in March and parliament elections in October.
In the parliament elections Tymoshenko's party Fatherland is running first in the polls, with the Petro Poroshenko bloc, the Opposition bloc (formerly Party of Regions) and Servant of the People jocking for second position.
In the presidential elections the polls has the same configuration for the first round with Tymoshenko in the lead and Poroshenko, Boyko (for Opposition Bloc) and Zelenski (for Servant of the People) competing for the run-off. In the second round polls Zelenski beats the others most of the time.
The other roles looking fairly familiar with the usual cast of Ukrainian oligarchs, but then who is Zelenko and what is Servant of the People? Zelenko so far only shows up in polls, he has no page on english wikipedia, and is not a declared candidate.
As it turns out Zelenko is the star of the comedy show hit Servant of the People featuring a teacher who accidentially gets elected president. Reading reviews, I get an impression of a cross between Dave and Yes, minister.
Apparently, an every day man playing president is not only a hit script on Ukrainian television but is to a large part of the voters looking better then the other options.
