Less than a week into the second round of campaigning for the leadership of this post-Soviet nation, the Ukrainian election has come to resemble a reality show.
Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who won 30% of the vote in the first round of Ukraine's presidential election, laughs as he takes a blood test in Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday.
The challenger put the idea to Poroshenko in a slickly produced video challenging the incumbent to a debate before April 21, when voters go back to the polls to determine who will lead this nation of 43 million for the next five years. Poroshenko, whose campaign highlights his role as commander in chief against Moscow-backed separatists in the country’s war in the east, has criticized the comedian for lacking a clear policy agenda and political experience.
On Wednesday, Zelensky’s campaign followed up with a video challenging Poroshenko to a debate. The video showed the political newcomer confidently walking into the center of Kiev’s Olympic stadium, telling the president he would face him not as the “clown” Poroshenko has labeled him, but as a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine.
Poroshenko owns one of the country’s biggest networks, Channel 5. Zelensky’s popular television show, “Servant of the People,” and Kvartal 95, his comedy troupe, air on 1+1 Channel, which is owned by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky.
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