What next? Comedian’s win in Ukrainian presidential election poses riddle
The emphatic victory of Volodymyr Zelenskiy is a bitter blow for incumbent Petro Poroshenko, while voters say its a protest vote
Kiev/Washington/Brussels— Ukraine entered uncharted political waters on Monday after near final results showed a comedian with no political experience and few detailed policies had dramatically up-ended the status quo and won the country’s presidential election by a landslide. The emphatic victory of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 41, is a bitter blow for incumbent Petro Poroshenko and presents a riddle for investors, the West and Russia who wonder what approach he will take on everything from Moscow to the domestic banking sector. Zelenskiy is poised to take leadership of a country on the frontline of the West’s standoff with Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Poroshenko, 53, had tried to rally voters, casting himself as a bulwark against Russian aggression and a champion of Ukrainian identity. But Zelenskiy, best known for playing a fictitious president in a TV show, trounced him, winning 73% of the vote, central elect...
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