The Russian invasion has hit Ukraine’s billionaires hard. According to Forbes’ 36th annual World’s Billionaires List, there are only seven left in the country and Zelensky is not one of them (nor is former president and chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko, who dropped from the rankings this year).
But unlike his predecessor, Zelensky never was a billionaire. He’s currently worth roughly $20 million, based on reporting by Forbes Ukraine. Additional reporting by Forbes US puts that number at less than $30 million.
President Zelensky Is Not A Billionaire. So How Much Is He Worth?
. . .His main asset: an estimated 25% stake in Kvartal 95, a group of companies that produce humorous shows, which he transferred to his partners after being elected president, though he’ll likely regain his shares after leaving office.
- Kvartal 95 produced and owns the Servant of the People series, a popular political comedy starring Zelensky as a Ukrainian high school teacher who is elected president.
- Netflix, which previously streamed the show between 2017 and 2021, snapped up the rights again in March. With estimated revenues of $30 million annually, Forbes Ukraine values Zelensky’s stake at $11 million.
While he does own a flat in one of Ukraine’s most expensive apartment buildings in the center of Kyiv, it’s relatively modest by Western standards.
- Forbes estimates Zelensky’s entire real estate portfolio is worth $4 million, including two more wholly owned apartments, two that he co-owns, a single commercial property and five parking spaces.
- Zelensky did own a $4.6 million villa in Forte dei Marmi, Italy as of December 2019, according to the most recent filing by his holding company. He apparently sold it during 2020 (it had shown up in his declarations for 2018 and 2019 but not 2020) along with a small plot of land and 5 hotel rooms in Georgia (popular upper-middle-class investments in Ukraine).
- The cash from these sales was declared and is included in Forbes’ estimate, but because the sum is less than the estimated value of the real estate, it is possible Zelensky remains a de facto beneficiary or the cash is invested elsewhere.
- We estimate he and his wife Olena Zelenska share a bank account that holds roughly $2 million in cash and government bonds. Their other assets, consisting of two cars and some jewelry, are worth no more than $1 million. . ."
ANOTHER REAL-LIFE POLITICIAN MADE ON TELEVISION: From Lewd Comedy to Ukrainian President
A rehearsal for war: Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s path from comic to symbol of courage
Volodymyr Zelenskiy in March 2019, weeks before becoming Ukraine’s president.
Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty
Last modified on Wed 2 Mar 2022 04.10 EST
As the president of Ukraine, his defiance has made him a hero across the world.
Could his success as a politician lie in his years as an entertainer? . . .But there is plenty about Zelenskiy’s showbiz career that has been underestimated. When Zelenskiy was elected in April 2019, at the age of 41, the Russian commentator Sergey Parkhomenko said: “He is weak, he does not have a religion, he does not have a nationality.” It was meant as a criticism, even though all these reasons were precisely why people had voted for Zelenskiy. He is not intimidating. He does not come from a political background. He is a Russian speaker from the centre of the country. But, most of all, to Ukrainians, he was recognisable and he was funny. That nice guy off that TV show Servant of the People. You know, the one where the geeky history teacher becomes the president overnight. The Paddington voice guy.
Outside the Russian-speaking world, you wouldn’t have known any of this. You probably wouldn’t even have heard of the TV show, even though it was eventually snapped up by Netflix. (It is now available on YouTube with English subtitles.) Beyond Ukraine, until last week, he was simply referred to as “a comedian who became president”. Initial coverage of his landslide victory – in which he won 73.2% of the vote – was derisory. What were the Ukrainians thinking? Who is this guy anyway? He is hardly Ronald Reagan. What a joke. . .
- . . .He started out in 1995, as a teenager, as an improviser in KVN competitions in his area. KVN (Klub Vesyolykh i Nakhodchivykh, or Club of the Funny and Inventive) is a beloved institution known throughout the former Soviet Union, which went on to become one of the longest-running shows on Russian television. (Its social media feeds have been inactive since 27 February.) It grew out of the 60s TV show Vecher Vesleykh Voprosov (An Evening of Funny Questions), in which performers would compete to come up with the funniest answers, in the style of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Taken off air in the early 70s after it fell foul of the censors, it was revived in 1986 during the era of glasnost and perestroika.
- Zelenskiy was a keen competitive improviser and became part of Ukraine’s Kvartal 95 team of about 10 players, touring the then recently dissolved USSR, winning KVN competitions and honing their Russian-language sketches. It was only much later that they started to do more sketches in Ukrainian: Zelenskiy’s story represents the fluidity and divides between Russian and Ukrainian cultural audiences. He is and isn’t “one of ours”. .
- In 2003, Kvartal 95 was established as an independent production company, making TV shows and films for Ukrainian and Russian-speaking audiences. The project got a boost when Zelenskiy won Ukraine’s Dancing With the Stars in 2006, performing with his professional partner, Alena Shoptenko. She is still one of the 196 people he follows on Instagram. (He has 13.4 million followers.)
- Highlights included a jive to Blue Suede Shoes, with Zelenskiy giving it the full pink-satin-jumpsuited Elvis, a pencil moustache for a tango to Big Spender, a blindfolded rumba to Sting’s The Shape of My Heart and a quirky American smooth dressed as Charlie Chaplin. His performances were energetic and all-in – and he was super-fit.
- This was – and is – clearly important to him: until he became president, he would regularly post videos on social media from the gym, or swimming, or jogging in New York.
His screen work grew. In 2008, he played Igor, a Russian dentist living in New York, in Love in the Big City. Igor is one of three friends suddenly struck impotent, who must then find the path to true love in order to regain their virility. (It is easy to react disparagingly to this, but the film made $9m at the box office and it is fair to say that Steve Carell’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin is not too dissimilar in tone.)
Two sequels followed. In Office Romance: Our Time (2011), he played Anatoly, a financial analyst with a difficult boss.
No comments:
Post a Comment