Berkley Center

On Sunday, April 21, 2019, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the Ukrainian presidential election. Zelensky has no political experience but has promised to challenge the status quo, prompting mixed predictions about how his leadership will impact the country and its relations with Russia and the rest of the world.

Mikhail Minakov—whose research focuses on society and culture, religion, and social and political imagination in Ukraine, Russia, and post-Soviet societies—offered a scholarly reflection on recent sociopolitical and religious developments that led to Zelensky's election.

Lunch was served.