Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov called Zelenskiy “the obvious choice“, adding that it was premature for Putin to call and congratulate the new president. Peskov also complained that the roughly three million Ukrainians living in Russia were not allowed to vote.  It is unclear if he meant those living in Crimea, a peninsula annexed by the Russians in 2014. Even if Peskov’s three million Ukrainians voted for Poroshenko in the second round he would have had half the votes of Zelenskiy.

Zelenskiy also had two times the votes of his challengers in the first last month, which included Yulia Tymoshenko, a constant fixture in Ukrainian politics; a veritable Evita Peron.