Presidential election Ukraine
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Nowhere has the presidential election in Ukraine been followed as closely as in neighboring Russia. And nowhere, it seems, is the joy now as great as in Moscow. Finally, not only incumbent Petro Poroshenko suffered a devastating defeat on Sunday, but also his warlike rhetoric against everything Russian.
"Basically, Putin won the election, with his traditional 73 percent," Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent Russian talk show host, exulted on election night. It was an allusion to Poroshenko's election posters, in which as an adversary not TV comedian Wolodymyr Selensky was pictured, but Vladimir Putin.
But did Putin actually win this election? Obviously, one is not sure about this in the Russian leadership, otherwise the reactions would be different. The Kremlin has learned over the last decades that politics in Ukraine is harder to influence than it seems. And Selensky has made confessions in recent weeks to Europe and NATO, to the Ukrainian language and even to nationalist associations that displease Moscow.
Ukrinform / DPA
The Ukrainian election winner Volodymyr Selensky on Easter Sunday at the polling station
Putin did not congratulate Selensky on the election - and apparently does not intend to do it either. It is "premature" to talk about congratulations, said Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday, despite the huge lead in the counting of votes. The legitimacy of the election is in question, after all, had "three million" living in Russia Ukrainians vote not allowed.
Condescension in Moscow
Putin left the reaction to the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. His opinion, published on Facebook, combines cautious confidence with condescending advice.
"I have no doubt that the new leader will use the same rhetoric he used in his election campaign in relation to Russia," warns Medvedev. Nevertheless, there are "chances that the relationship improves." However, honesty and pragmatism must finally find their way into Ukraine if the country recognizes the "political realities" in eastern Ukraine. Say: Just find yourself with the fact that you no longer control large areas, then we come back to the conversation. He wishes the Kiev leadership "common sense".
Medvedev's teachings are typical of the condescending way in which Moscow talks about Ukraine as if it were not a sovereign state, but a rebellious and foolish neighbor. And on the other hand, it speaks of the distrust that the Kremlin has developed after many disappointments. It is known in Moscow that in Ukraine - unlike in Russia - the President is surrounded by a strong parliament. The new Rada will be elected only in autumn.
What to do with the new politician type?
If it were to Moscow's will, then would have won not anyway Selensky, but the pro-Russian candidate Yuri Bojko, who was openly supported by Moscow in the election and in the first ballot at least received 12 percent. Selensky as a completely new type of politician is also a mystery to the Kremlin, and his connection to the oligarch Ihor Kolomojski is no advantage from a Russian perspective.
The Kremlin is tempted to destabilize the Ukraine and to work for a "chaoticization", as former Kremlin spin doctor Gleb Pawlowski warned before the runoff election.
Or, conversely, is it possible to destabilize Putin's regime through Selensky's electoral victory? The TV comedian, known as an actor in Russia, turned to all post-Soviet countries on election night with the words "Look at us, everything is possible!" That was primarily addressed to the Russians. And for Russia's citizens, the peaceful transfer of power in Ukraine is in itself a strange spectacle.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist Duma deputy and a raving political clown, spoke openly on television. He had to reprimand the Russian political scientists - they had all predicted violence and a second Maidan in Ukraine, "we thought in our resentment, Ukraine is going up in flames again." None of that happened.
Video: The elections in Ukraine in the analysis
THE MIRROR
Even the debate of the two candidates in the Kiev Olympic Stadium on Friday was something unthinkable for Russian television viewers - Vladimir Putin has never been in power in debates against opponents in two decades in power. The debate was broadcast on Russian television because even in a highly commented form.
Opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who for years tried in vain to register as a candidate for president, congratulated the neighbors - and expressly Poroshenko's supporters. "Fair elections are a rare thing in the countries of the former USSR."