Zelenskyy’s Lesson

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy graduated from law school, but when it came time to practice law, he was having too much fun and success as an amateur actor and decided to make that his career.

By 2015 Zelenskyy was the star of a wildly popular satire comedy called Servant of the People, a TV series about a young high school teacher who accidentally became President of Ukraine. Long story short, life imitated art, and in 2019 he really did become the actual President of Ukraine.

But three years later, life imitated art once again when Russia attempted to invade and crush his country. Suddenly his performance skills needed to be backed by the ability to solve very large problems and, literally, prosecute a case for Western support. In a life-or-death appeal to the West for the tools to drive back the invaders, Zelenskyy needs all of his advocacy tools to convince sometimes reluctant allies that his people are actually fighting their war on their behalf.

In the background of the war and the appeals for Western support are the demands of the West to clean up the rampant corruption that Ukraine had inherited from the old Soviet Union and which still thrives in Russia. To drive such change, a clear understanding of the “rule of law” is needed, as well as the way legislation and the judiciary actually work.

As it turns out, Zelenskyy’s legal training was exactly what he needed to stickhandle anti-corruption legislation into effect, as well as to prosecute the case for critical assistance from freedom-loving countries. It just goes to show that one never knows what today’s training and opportunity will provide in tomorrow’s circumstances.

(This article was written long before Donald Trump’s craven channeling of Neville Chamberlain’s “peace for our time” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time) rhetoric. For shame, Donald. Slava Ukraini.)