With Vladimir Zelensky, the same story may repeat itself as with Donald Trump, when Russian politicians openly rooted for him, hoping for improved relations with the United States, but even Hillary Clinton’s loss did not lead to a thaw between Moscow and Washington.
The head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, stated this on the air of Ekho Moskvy, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
"I assumed that he (Poroshenko - ed.) may not even make it to the second round, because his situation is desperate. But I assumed that the scale of the administrative resource, to put it mildly, would be much larger, and it would not allow Zelensky to break away from himself twice as much. This is perhaps the biggest surprise for me so far.
I personally expect some shocks, I expect provocations from Poroshenko. Because, unlike Zelensky, he has something to lose,” Kosachev said.
“Today I was surprised to read a statement by Mr. Volker, the special representative of the State Department for Ukraine, who stated without any hesitation that Zelensky is someone we don’t understand and who we don’t understand where from, and Ukrainians should vote exclusively for Poroshenko and for everything that he has done wonderful for countries. This is the position of the United States, because Mr. Volcker is the official representative of this country,” the senator emphasized.
“Russia is now behaving, in my opinion, impeccably, without in any way indicating its preferences. And, I think that, in fact, these preferences cannot exist, because Poroshenko is definitely [figuratively] not a handshake for us, and Zelensky has not shown himself to be anything remarkable in the Russian direction to claim the position and role of a handshake. But I wouldn’t want to get ahead of myself,” he added.
Kosachev also voiced his personal point of view, asking not to consider it as interference in the Ukrainian elections.
“Personally, I think that we would have been better off if Poroshenko had lost. Let me emphasize: I am not saying “if Zelensky had won.” I'm not talking about Zelensky now.
Roughly the same parallel as with the US elections in 16. You remember, Clinton - Trump. And many in Russia were rooting for Trump (including me, by the way). But not because Trump was obviously better than Clinton, but because we understood perfectly well that under Clinton this completely hopeless, sluggish and degrading state of our relations would continue,” the senator said.
“Trump created some hope for change. I said then in relation to Trump (now I can repeat this in relation to Zelensky) that at least there is hope that something will change. The spectrum of these hopes ranges from very good to very bad. We have now confirmed that things have changed for the worse.
With Zelensky there would be hope that something could also change. Yes, maybe for the worse. But maybe for the better. I would prefer such hope to this completely hopeless situation into which our bilateral relations, and indeed the whole of Ukraine, Mr. Poroshenko, have plunged,” concluded Konstantin Kosachev.