The reason for Vladimir Putin’s abiding hatred of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky relates to a TV sketch he made as a comedian in 2014 mocking the Russian president and his mistress, a new book has claimed.
The sketch in question shows Zelensky mercilessly playing the part of Russian Olympic gymnast – and rumoured lover of Putin – Alina Kabaeva.
The spoof sees Putin returning home late to be scolded and threatened with a sex ban by Kabaeva, who is 30 years his junior.
It appears innocuous by Western standards but according to author Mikhail Zygar, a chronicler of Putin’s Russia, the sketch sealed the autocrat’s loathing of Zelensky, against whom he would later go to war.
‘Not a single comedian in Russia would ever dare to compose such a sketch, and especially not a single TV channel would show it,’ Zygar wrote in his new book War and Punishment: How Russia destroyed Ukraine.
Ukrainian president and former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky plays Putin’s lover Alina Kabaeva in 2014
The spoof sees Putin returning home late to be scolded and threatened with a sex-ban by Kabaeva – who is 30 years his junior – played by Zelensky
The sketch appears innocuous by Western standards but according to author Mikhail Zygar, a chronicler of Putin’s Russia, the sketch sealed the autocrat’s loathing of Zelensky
Alina Kabaeva and Vladimir Putin at an event in Kremlin in the 2000s
Kabaeva is on record saying she had met an unnamed man who ‘I love very much’, gushing: ‘Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared.’ This was after she had posed almost nude for Russian Maxim magazine and was described as ‘full of sex’ by a photographer
In the sketch Kabaeva, played by Zelensky, demands to know where Putin has been after he returns home late.
He splutters that he was discussing with his defence minister Sergei Shoigu the deployment of Russian troops in recently-annexed Crimea – but Kabaeva insists Putin’s state TV denies there are any Russian troops in Crimea.
‘Do I look like a fool? I am watching Russian news! There are no troops in Crimea!’ Kabaeva screams.
Putin then admits state TV may not tell the truth before the sketch shows the real reason for her anger – deposed and disgraced Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who Putin saved after he was ousted in a coup, living in their residence, in a cupboard.
‘This is it. No more sex, no relations,’ storms Kabaeva.
Putin says: ‘Let me sort this out, I’ll arrange everything.’
Kabaeva replies: ‘And how do we do it?’
Putin tells her: ‘Watch me.’
A former spy, he knocks a code on the door of Yanukovych’s closet.
The toppled president says: ‘Got you! I will not come out of the cupboard for one and a half minutes,’ insinuating the pair were about to have sex.
Kabaeva asks why Yanukovych is singing, to which Putin responds: ‘I guess so he doesn’t hear us.‘
Kabaeva continues: ‘This is a nightmare. This is it – it’s either me, or him. Take your pick… either him or me.’
The sketch ends with Putin making Kabaeva president of Ukraine, while Yanukovych says: ‘Oh thank God – I’ll take charge of the [Putin] household…’
Putin has never admitted his relationship with Kabaeva, aged 30 when the comedy show was made – or the three children they are believed to share.
But he did say: ‘I have a private life into which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.’
He deplored ‘those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives’.
Kabaeva is on record saying she had met an unnamed man who ‘I love very much’, gushing: ‘Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared.’
This was after she had posed almost nude for Russian Maxim magazine and was described as ‘full of sex’ by a photographer.
Alina Kabaeva and Vladimir Putin at an event in Kremlin
In another sketch broadcast in 2014, Zelensky is seen broadcasting from a square beside the Kremlin where he mocked the rigid control already in place in Putin’s Russia
A fresh faced Zelensky is seen in Moscow shortly after the invasion of Crimea
Mikhail Zygar, Russian journalist and writer of the newly-released book ‘War and Punishment. How Russia destroyed Ukraine’
Zygar explained how the sketch could’ve made Zelensky a target of Putin.
‘Joking about Putin has long been unacceptable here, especially about his personal life. You can’t talk about (Kabaeva) at all. This is a general rule for all media.
‘Only once, back in 2008, the tabloid Moscow Korrespondent wrote that Putin was getting a divorce to marry Kabaeva, and the newspaper was immediately closed.
‘Since then, not a single Russian media outlet has dared to touch on the topic of the president’s family life.’
Zygar says that Zelensky’s fleeting role playing Kabaeva would be the ‘turning point in Zelensky’s life, although he himself does not yet suspect it.
‘This is the very moment when Putin first learns about the existence of the comedian,’ wrote Zygar, citing a source who worked in the presidential administration.
Soon after a criminal case was opened against Zelensky in Russia.
Eight years later in 2022, Putin invaded Ukraine and has attempted to topple Zelensky from power.
In another sketch broadcast in 2014, Zelensky is seen broadcasting from a square beside the Kremlin where he mocked the rigid control already in place in Putin’s Russia.
‘Good evening dear Ukraine, good evening beloved, free Kyiv,’ said a youthful Zelensky.
‘I am in the centre of Moscow at the Manezhnaya Square… It is very democratic here indeed. Anyone can freely yell ”Glory to Ukraine” and suffer no consequences.
‘Or at least, suffer no consequences that can’t be corrected by modern medicine.’
Zygar is the author of the bestseller All the Kremlin’s Men – a history of Putin’s Russia – and a writer and filmmaker.
He was the founding editor-in-chief of Russian independent news TV-channel, Dozhd.