St. Petersburg in Russia is familiar to readers of World History. It was a place of great cultural exchange rivalling that of Paris and London in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was the place where many people died because the Nazis cut off supplies during the Second World War. Now, it is a place filled with art. It is also the place where Vladimir Putin was born.
Putin’s birth in St. Petersburg meant the Russians were a bit sceptical about him. He is known as an ‘Old Believer,’ someone who follows the Russian Orthodox Church that has existed since the seventeenth century. This contributed to his masculine image. The Russian newspaper Zavthra once described him as ruthless and disciplined. They believed that the country did not need a ‘Mr. Nice Guy.’ They thought they needed the ‘Terror of God.’
By that logic, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is exactly the kind of ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ who cannot rule the Russian roost. Zelensky was an actor and comedian before he defeated the former President of Ukraine in 2019. The only political experience he had prior to becoming president was that of playing the President on television. An extremely rare case of reel to real.
Within three months of becoming President, Zelensky became the centre of former US President Donald Trump’s impeachment row. Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine to put pressure on the country to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Zelensky stood firm and declined. The ban on military aid was removed and House Democrats demanded an investigation that led to Trump’s impeachment in 2019.
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