Zelensky, Vladimir Alexandrovich

Vladimir Alexandrovich Zelensky
Ukrainian Volodimir Oleksandrovich Zelensky
President of Ukraine from May 20, 2019
Head of the government	Vladimir Groysman (2016–2019) Alexey Goncharuk (2019–2020) Denis Shmygal (since 2020)
Predecessor	Petro Poroshenko
Birth
Father	Alexander Semenovich Zelensky
Mother	Rimma Vladimirovna Zelenskaya
Spouse	Elena Vladimirovna Zelenskaya
Children	daughter: Alexandra son: Cyril
The consignment	non-partisan
Education
Activities	lawyer , actor , comedian , screenwriter , TV presenter , film producer , television producer , singer , parodist , comedian , showman , politician , film director , entrepreneur
Autograph
Website
Commanded	Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (from May 20, 2019)

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelensky ( Ukrainian: Volodimir Oleksandrovich Zelensky ; born , ) is a Ukrainian statesman. The current president of Ukraine since May 20, 2019 ^{[2] [3] [4]} . Founder of the political party " Servant of the people " ^[5] .

Prior to being elected president, he was widely known as a comedian, producer and screenwriter. He was the captain of the KVN " 95th Quarter " team, and then the founder and artistic director of the "Quarter-95" studio .

Childhood and youth

External Images
	Vova with mom Rimma in childhood

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelensky was born on January 25, 1978 in the city of Krivoy Rog (Ukrainian SSR) into a Ukrainian - Jewish family ^{[6] [7]} . He speaks Ukrainian , Russian and English languages ^[8] .

Grandfather - Semyon Ivanovich Zelensky (1924, Krivoy Rog -?), Ukrainian ^[9] , participant in the Great Patriotic War . During the war years - the commander of the mortar platoon, then - the commander of the rifle company of the 174th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 57th Guards Rifle Division . In 1944 he was awarded two Orders of the Red Star , finished the war with the rank of Lieutenant Guard ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]} .

Father - Alexander Semenovich Zelensky (born December 23, 1947), mathematician, programmer ^[14] , doctor of technical sciences , professor , head of the department of computer science - a teacher at the same university where Vladimir studied ^{[15] [16]} . My father lived and worked in Mongolia for 20 years , built a mining and processing plant in the city of Erdenet ^[14] .

Mother - Rimma Vladimirovna Zelenskaya (born September 16, 1950), has an engineering degree, has 40 years of experience, and is currently retired ^[14] .

As a child, he lived with his parents for four years in Mongolia , where his father worked. He graduated from the first class there, after which Vladimir and his mother returned to Krivoy Rog ^[17] . He studied at school number 95 with in-depth study of English. In school years he was engaged in Greco-Roman wrestling ^[14] , weightlifting, collecting stamps, playing the piano, doing ballroom dancing, playing basketball and volleyball. He took part in amateur performances, was a guitarist in the school ensemble ^{[18] [19] [20]} . At 16, he received a grant for free education in Israel , but his father was against it ^[14] .

Graduated from school in 1995. At school, he dreamed of becoming a diplomat and even prepared at MGIMO , but enrolled in law studies at the Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute of Kiev National Economic University ^[21] , which he graduated in 2000. He never worked ^{on the} specialty received ^[22] .

Creative career

KVN

In 11th grade, he organized a team of graduates and played in KVN with a team of teachers, the students won ^[17] . After school, he played in the KVN team “Young Kryvyi Rih” ^[20] , then he was invited to the KVN team “ Zaporozhye - Kryvyi Rih - Transit ” for staging dance numbers; Zelensky’s role in the team gradually expanded, and he began to participate in the numbers. At the same time as Zelensky in “Zaporozhye - Krivoy Rog - Transit” came the future actors of the studio “Quarter-95” : Denis Manzhosov, Yuri Krapov , Alexander Pikalov . They are after the 1997 seasonin which Zaporizhzhya - Kryvyi Rih - Transit became the champion, they created a new team, which was called the " 95th quarter ." Vladimir Zelensky became in it not only an actor and captain, but also one of the leading authors.

From 1998 to 2003, the “95th quarter” played in the Premier League of KVN , the team members practically lived in Moscow and constantly toured the cities of the CIS . As part of the “95th quarter” Zelensky in 2002 reached the semi-finals of the Highest League of KVN and twice (in 2000 and 2001) became the owner of “KiViNa svetly” - the second prize of the KVN music festival “Voting KiwiN”.

Studio "Quarter-95"

At the end of 2003, the Ukrainian television channel 1 + 1 proposed that the 95th quarter make a series of concerts consisting of the best numbers of the team.

In 2004, the team began to prepare a project, while also moonlighting in various television programs. Vladimir led the culinary show "Mr. Cook." All revenues were invested in the overall project, and in 2005, the TV channel " Inter " began the television show " Evening Quarter ", whose ideologist, author, director and lead actor is Vladimir Zelensky. The show quickly gained popularity and soon overtook KVN and Comedy Club in ratings among Ukrainian audiences . Critics attribute the Evening Quarter to a political cabaret.

In addition, the 95th Quarter team grew into the Kvartal-95 studio, owned by Vladimir Zelensky, Boris and Sergey Shefira, Andrey Yakovlev ^[23] .

The studio released several television projects (“Evening Quarter”, “Fight Club”, “Ukraine, Get Up”), wrote scripts for television programs (“Song of the Year”, “Half Moon”), musicals (“For Two Hares”, “Three Musketeers”, “A very New Year’s movie or a night at the museum”), films ^[24] , corporate parties.

External video files
	Tsytsko Brothers - Game without pants The Evening Quarter at the Jurmaleto Concert from 09.24.2016 [25]

In the period from December 2010 to August 2011 and from November 2011 to September 2012, Vladimir Zelensky was the general producer of the Inter channel, a number of leadership positions on the channel were held by members of his team ^{[26] [27]} . Financing was mainly focused on the production of the Kvartal-95 studio projects ^[28] .

In 2012, as part of the TV show " Evening Kiev " ^[29] , which aired on the Ukrainian channel " 1 + 1 ", he set and read a text from the author in the animated series " Fairy-Tale Russia " ^[30] .

TV projects

• 2004 - Mr. Cook (presenter)
• 2005—2019 - “The Evening Quarter ” (actor, author)
• Fight Club (host)
• “ Song of the Year in Ukraine” (host)
• 2006 and 2018 - “ Dancing with the Stars ”, a participant paired with Alena Shoptenko and the winner in 2006, in 2018 - a jury member of the last broadcast
• 2008 - Office Romance (Presenter)
• 2010 - “Filed in Ukraine” (moderator with Valery Zhidkov )
• Pure NEWS (Presenter)
• 2011 - Millionaire - Hot Chair (host)
• 2011—2018 - “ Laugh the comedian ” - Ukrainian version (jury member with Evgeny Koshev , previously with Mikhail Galustyan )
• International Music Festival in Yalta "Crimea Music Fest" (hosted by Masha Efrosinina and Maxim Galkin )
• 2011—2013 - “Sunday with the Quarter” (author of the idea and producer)
• 2012—2017 - “ Evening Kiev ” (host with Valery Zhidkov )
• 2012 - Chervone abo chorne (presenter)
• 2013 - “ I Want V VIA Gro ” (presenter with Vera Brezhneva )
• 2014 - “I Want to Meladze” (author of the idea)
• 2015 - Guess the Box (author of the idea)
• 2015—2018 - League of Laughter (host)

TV projects in Russia

• 2006, 2010-2012 - television concerts of the "Evening Quarter" ( TV Center , STS , " Russia-1 ")
• 07/31/2010 - “The New Wave of 2010 . Premier Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading
• 2011 - " Factor A . Season 1 "(" Russia-1 ") - presenter with Philip Kirkorov
• 07/27/2011 - “The new wave of 2011 . World Hit Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading
• 2011 - “Magic” (“Russia-1”) - presenter with Tatyana Lazareva ^[31] (three episodes aired in May 2019 on NTV ^[32] , a previously re-edited version of the footage of the first episode was released on July 9, 2012 on “1 + 1” with Yuri Gorbunov ^{[33] [34]} )
• 12/31/2011 - "New Year Parade of Stars 2012" ("Russia-1") - presenter with Maxim Galkin
• 2012 - “ Make a comedian laugh .” Russian version ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - a jury member with Maxim Galkin ^[35] . In February 2014, castings were planned to restart the Russian version on the STS channel, but subsequently they were canceled ^[36]
• 07/25/2012 - "The New Wave of 2012 . World Hit Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading
• 12/31/2012 - “New Year Parade of Stars-2013” ​​(“Russia-1”) 
• 2013, 2014 - “First / Second New Year's Eve” (“Russia-1”) - presenter with Maxim Galkin ^{[37] [38] [39] [40]}
• 07.24.2013 - “The new wave of 2013 . World Hit Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading
• 12/31/2013 - “New Year Parade of Stars 2014” (“Russia-1”) 

Movie

In 2008, he starred in the role of Igor’s dentist in the feature film Love in the Big City, which was shot according to the script of the same Studio Kvartal-95 studio.

In 2010, a sequel came out under the title - “Love in the Big City 2”. January 25, the premiere of the film " Rzhevsky against Napoleon ", where Zelensky played one of the main roles - Napoleon Bonaparte . March 17, 2011 the premiere of the film “ Office Romance. Our time ”, where he played Anatoly Novoseltsev. On March 8, 2012, the film “The 8 First Dates ” was released, where he played a major role. On January 1, 2014, the comedy “Love in the Big City 3” was released on the screens of cinemas, where Vladimir again played the role of Igor’s dentist. On January 1, 2015, the film “8 new dates” was also released in the lead role.

On April 24, 2019, the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artyom Sytnik announced that the NABU suspects the Kinokvartal company, the founder of which is Vladimir Zelensky, in wasting public funds. An investigation has been launched against the company. Sytnik said that in April NABU received a statement from the organization “Union of Volunteers”. According to her, the Goskino of Ukraine funded 49% of the budget of the film “ I, you, he, she ”, released by the “Kinokvartal”. The company undertook to create a film entirely in Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar, but did not fulfill this condition, says the “Union of Volunteers” ^[41] .

Filmography

Actor

Screenwriter

Producer

Producer

• 2018  - I, you, he, she (together with David Dodson)

Dubbing into Ukrainian

Art Awards and Prizes

In the creative asset has 10 feature films. Winner of more than 30 awards of the National Television Prize of Ukraine “Teletriumph”. He is also the winner and winner of many international film, television festivals and media forums ^[21] .

Political career

Social and political activity

Supported by Euromaidan ^[42] . During the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, Zelensky supported the actions of the Ukrainian army ^{[21] [43]} and volunteer battalions ^[44] , gave concerts to Ukrainian soldiers who took part in the fighting in Donbass ^[21] , together with other participants of the “95th quarter ”donated one million hryvnias ^[47] for the needs of volunteer battalions ^{[45] [46 ]} . In his speeches, he began to make fun of Russian politicians and residents of Russia , the self-proclaimed republics: the DPR and LPR. At the same time, Zelensky had difficulties in Russia. In particular, the evening block show was canceled on Russian television, and in February 2015, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, at the request of Dmitry Zakharov, a deputy of the Moscow municipal district of Yakimanka, began checking information on the financing of actions by Ukrainian security officials by Zelensky and other Ukrainian cultural figures ^{[48 ]} . Work on the seventh season of the popular and commercially successful Russian-Ukrainian television series Swat was also frozen ; some media reported that the cause was political disagreement between Zelensky and Russian actors ^[49] .

At the same time, Zelensky opposed the ban on the entry of Russian cultural figures into Ukraine ^[50] and spoke out negatively about the proposal to ban the series “Matchmakers” in Ukraine ^[51] .

As president of Ukraine, he promised $ 1 million to the creator of a vaccine against coronavirus infection ^[52] .

Presidential Campaign 2019

In December 2018, in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon, Vladimir Zelensky announced the intention of his party “ Servant of the People ” to participate in future parliamentary elections ^[53] .

On December 31, 2018, a few minutes before the New Year, Vladimir Zelensky addressed the Ukrainians on the 1 + 1 TV channel , where he announced that he would participate in the presidential elections in Ukraine ^{[54] [55]} , and for this reason the traditional congratulations of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko (subsequent Zelensky’s statements about a technical error were denied by the 1 + 1 press service, which positioned the incident as a deliberate step of the channel ^{[56] [57]} ).

On January 21, 2019, the Party of the Servant of the People nominated Vladimir Zelensky as a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine ^[58] .

In late January, Zelensky first came out on top in pre-election polls ^[59] . By February, Zelensky’s rating rose to 25-30% ^{[60] [61] [62]} , and in mid-March to 34% ^[63] .

On March 31, the first round of the presidential election took place, in which the largest number of votes (30.24%) was won by Vladimir Zelensky - almost twice as many as the current president Petro Poroshenko ^[64] .

In the second round of elections, in which Zelensky went with Petro Poroshenko, he won, according to the final results of the CEC of Ukraine , 73.22% of the vote (13.5 million votes) ^[65] .

May 3 Information about the winner of the presidential election has been placed in the publication of the Verkhovna Rada newspaper " Voice of Ukraine " and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine newspaper " Governmental Courier " ^[66] .

President of Ukraine

The inauguration of Vladimir Zelensky was held on May 20, 2019. He called the ceasefire in the east of the country and the return of " Ukrainian Crimea and Donbass " the priorities of his team ^[67] . In his inaugural speech, Zelensky announced the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada and urged members of the government "to free up their seats for those who will think about the next generations, and not about the next election ."

On May 21, 2019, President Zelensky dismissed the current Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and scheduled early parliamentary elections. As Zelensky said at a meeting with leaders of parliamentary factions, “the main argument for the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada is the very low confidence of Ukrainian citizens in this organization - 4% ” ^{[68] [69] [70]} .

On July 21, early parliamentary elections were held . The pro-presidential party " Servant of the People " gained 43.16% of the vote and won 124 seats. In addition, candidates supported by this party won in 130 single-member constituencies. Thanks to this, the party received a majority in parliament and formed a one-party government coalition.

On August 29, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the IX convocation approved the candidacy of Alexey Goncharuk for the post of prime minister and approved the new composition of the government . The Rada also approved, on the proposal of Vladimir Zelensky, Foreign Minister Vadim Pristayko , Defense Minister Andrei Zagorodniuk , Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapku , and head of the SBU Ivan Bakanov .

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky considers the USSR , as well as fascist Germany , guilty at the beginning of World War II and in the Holocaust ^{[71] [72] [73]} .

Property and income

Vladimir Zelensky declared incomes in the amount of 9.7 million hryvnias (24 million rubles) for 2018, his wife - 4.9 million hryvnias (12 million rubles). The income declaration is posted on the website of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. The Zelensky family has savings in accounts and in cash totaling more than 950 thousand dollars (65 million rubles) ^[74] .

Vladimir Zelensky owns a house (353 sq. M), an apartment (131 sq. M), a land plot (1200 sq. M), two parking spaces in Kiev. He also has three apartments (132 sq. M, 255 m² and 200 sq. M) shared with his wife, a house in Italy (413 sq. M) and an apartment in the UK (92 sq. M), an apartment in Yalta ( 130 sq. M), as well as ten hotel rooms in Georgia ^[74] .

As a valuable asset, Zelensky declared a Rolex , Breguet , Bovet , Piaget , Tag Heuer watch, and his wife - a Breguet watch, earrings and a Graff diamond ring. The Zelensky family has Range Rover cars (2016) and Mercedes-Benz S500 4 Matic (2014) ^[74] .

According to the declaration, Zelensky are the ultimate beneficiaries of the following companies: Kinokvartal LLC, Kvartal-95 Studio LLC, Zelari Fish LLC, Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), Vilhar Holdings Limited, Film Heritage inc (Belize), San Tommaso SRL (Italy). In addition, Vladimir Zelensky has shares in companies: LLC “Producer Center“ League of laughter ”, LLC Animation Studio 95, LLC Quarter TV, LLC Fish House, LLC Gaudi Studio, LLC Quarter concert ” ^[74] .

According to the Kommersant newspaper, during the presidential term, Vladimir Zelensky got rid of all business assets, transferring the bulk of the business to his brothers Sergei and Boris Shefiram ^[75] .

A family

Spouse (since September 6, 2003) - Elena Vladimirovna Zelenskaya (maiden Kiyashko, born February 6, 1978). An architect by training, she graduated from the Kryvyi Rih Technical University with honors . The beneficiary of Studio Quarter - 95 LLC (owned by 0.01% of the company, the remaining 99.99% is owned by the spouse), owns 25% of Zelari Fish LLC, which processes and preserves fish ^[76] . Screenwriter and author of Studio 95. Vladimir and Elena are familiar from the school where they studied in parallel classes ^{[77] [78]} .

Vladimir and Elena have two children: the daughter of Alexander (born July 15, 2004) and the son of Cyril (born January 21, 2013) ^[79] . In 2014, Alexandra starred in the film “8 New Dates” in the role of Sasha, the daughter of the protagonist ^{[80] [81]} ; in 2016 she participated in the show “Laugh the comedian. Children ”and won 50,000 hryvnias ^{[82] [83]} ; her godfather is Sergey Kravets, husband of Elena Kravets ^[84] .

Father-in-law - Vladimir Timofeevich Kiyashko (born August 15, 1951) works as an assistant to the deputy Oleg Bondarenko from the party "Servant of the People" on a voluntary basis, deals with the topic of cleaning Ukraine from industrial waste, Ph.D., assistant professor of building structures and structures of the Kiev Institute of Railway Transport , teaches discipline Building constructions and structures in transport ^[85] .

Notes

References

• 
  - the official website of Vladimir Zelensky
• Biography on the official website of the studio "Quarter 95"