While the worst expectations of Volodymyr Zelensky have not come to pass, neither have hopes of reform
“I STILL DON’T feel comfortable here,” says Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, as he walks briskly into an opulent presidential meeting room. A former comedian in a hit TV series, “Servant of the People”, that tells the story of a humble schoolteacher who accidentally becomes president, he is still, it seems, more used to a studio than a palace.
On the positive side, worries that Mr Zelensky would be manipulated by oligarchs such as Ihor Kolomoisky, who financed the TV channel in which Mr Zelensky appeared, and who is under investigation in America, have not been borne out. Neither have the fears that Mr Zelensky would be pushed around by Russia.
Yet while the worst expectations of Mr Zelensky have not come to pass, neither have the hopes that he would bring in a team of professional reformers with a plan and the ability to execute it. Although Mr Zelensky’s government has pushed through a law establishing a market in farmland, the country’s justice system remains unreformed and the rule of law is as patchy as ever.
Most Ukrainians would agree that their country’s oligarchs are too powerful. They have typically used their wealth to capture the state, arranging deals for the country’s resources that benefit them rather than the taxpayer. However, Mr Zelensky’s critics worry that he is simply trying to clobber individual tycoons into submission and raid their media assets, rather than opening up the economy to genuine competition.
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