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Zelensky still sees future presidency as next season of his sitcom — director Mikhalkov

Nikita Mikhalkov wished Zelensky success as Ukraine’s new president

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Ukraine’s president-elect Vladimir Zelensky still sees his current situation as a new season of his sitcom the Servant of the People, in which he played the part of an ordinary school teacher whom the power of fate propelled to the seat of the head of state, Russia’s film director Nikita Mikhalkov said on Thursday.

"For the time being he still has the illusion he keeps rehearsing next episodes for the Servant of the People, while staying unaware of the tremendous burden placed on his shoulders. I’m dead certain he still has an actor’s vision of what is in store for him. He has Donbass, he has the Right Sector (extremist organization outlawed in Russia) and the law on the exclusiveness of the Ukrainian language to confront," Mikhalkov told a news conference in reply to a TASS question.

"I absolutely agree with the Russian president in the sense Zelensky’s election heralded the collapse of what [the incumbent president Pyotr] Poroshenko has been doing all along. But I’m not certain that Zelensky will be able to correct this. Whatever the case, he was elected as an alternative to what has been so far."

Mikhalkov wished Zelensky success as Ukraine’s new president.

Vladimir Zelensky won a landslide victory in the Ukrainian presidential election runoff last Sunday by a 73.33% vote majority, slightly outperforming even his fictional character in the Servant of the People comedy - the top-rated television series in 2015.