While Putin relied on propaganda and censorship during the war, Zelenskyy developed into a global figurehead after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Kyiv/Moscow – What unites Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy these days is the determination with which both stand behind their respective causes. One demonstrates his strength in military garb and social media videos, the other in carefully staged images and a new censorship law. And in fact it is above all this commonality that makes it obvious that the differences between the two heads of government could hardly be greater.
On the one hand there is Putin*, whom the international media is currently describing as “distanced”, “confused” and “unapproachable”. With one short break, Putin has been head of government in Moscow since 2000. Thanks to changes in the law to extend his term of office and efforts to censor opponents, members of the opposition and independent media, it is unlikely that anything could change soon.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine: Opposites are at the forefront of states
On the other hand, there is Volodymyr Zelenskyj, whose candidacy for the presidency was viewed internationally as a joke just a few years ago. Before taking office, Zelenskyy was an entertainer, comedian and actor and was probably elected mainly because the majority of the Ukrainian population wanted to see the greatest possible changes. Since the end of February, when the first Russian troops marched into Ukraine, Zelenskyi has shown himself from a completely new perspective.
Instead of a tailor-made suit, he now wears military clothing, instead of speaking in well-lit television studios, he gives his speeches to the population in front of smartphone cameras, while the streets of Kiev can be clearly seen in the background. When US President Joe Biden Selenskyj offered to take the president out of the country for his safety, he reacted coolly and quick-wittedly: “I need ammunition, no ride.” almost impossible to recover in the past two weeks.
Ukraine war: Putin loses sympathy, Zelenskyj gains respect
In the war between Russia and Ukraine*, Putin has recently lost many former supporters, including former US President Donald Trump, who defended Putin in a Fox News interview shortly after the war began and identified Biden as the actual culprit of the escalation. In the meantime, even he is on Putin’s opposing side with the demand to “bomb the shit out of Russia”.
The contrasts are also evident at first glance in an article in the news magazine Spiegel, which analyzes how the two heads of state are currently portraying themselves in the media. Putin is sitting at a long conference table, with the Russian defense ministers at the very other end, who have sent thousands of soldiers to raid the neighboring country for their boss. Selenskyj, on the other hand, is repeatedly shown surrounded by government colleagues – on videos and photos, shoulder to shoulder.
In the Ukraine war, Putin and Zelenskyj communicate in completely opposite ways
However, the greatest contrast is currently evident in how people talk about each other, the translator and author Olga Radetzkaja recently analyzed in an interview with Deutsche Welle: In his speeches, Putin speaks “about the Ukrainians as a plague, about a virus, about parasites and a junta of drug-addicted Nazis. They are all dumbed down by Western propaganda and controlled from outside.”
Here, too, Selenskyj represents the direct opposite: While he repeatedly demonstrates in his speeches to his own people that he is one of them in the situation of war, acts “on an equal footing”, as Radetzkaja says, he also repeatedly makes appeals to the people in the neighboring country: “He turns to the Russian population and says: ‘They are told this and that on TV, but that’s how it is in reality’. Zelenskyj tries to argue. He doesn’t call the Russians stupid.” (ska) *hna.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
