If Moscow felt a warm sense of schadenfreude at the electoral trouncing of Ukraine’s incumbent President Poroshenko in the second round of the April 21 presidential elections, celebrations were outwardly subdued. Largely absent was the open, vindictive gloating that had accompanied Viktor Yushchenko’s record-breaking humiliation in the first round of Ukraine’s 2010 presidential elections. All the same, Putin declined even to congratulate the victor, comedian and political neophyte Volodymyr Zelensky, notwithstanding the widespread impression that Zelensky seeks a less contentious relationship with Ukraine’s great northern neighbor. Indeed, Moscow “greeted” Zelensky with a double whammy, announcing both the virtual end of …read more
Source: The American Interest
