Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Why Ukraine’s Reformers Back a Comedian for President

These ex-ministers wanted the country to become more European but were hounded out of government. Now they’re betting on a novice populist.

March 22, 2019 at 5:30 AM UTC

By Leonid Bershidsky

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Face of reform?
Photographer: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko may soon pay a price for letting his government push out the reformers who followed him from the private sector after the 2014 uprising that put him in power. Some of them are throwing in their lot with the anti-establishment candidate in the upcoming presidential election, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, hoping to return to power, even the score and enact policies that turned out to be impossible under Poroshenko.

Former Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius and former Finance Minister Oleksandr Danilyuk are known for their resistance to corruption and their commitment to a Western path for Ukraine. Both are working with Zelensky and against Poroshenko. I talked to them in Kiev this week; their willingness to gamble on a political novice speaks volumes about Poroshenko’s failures as Ukraine’s leader.