As Volodymyr Zelenskyy was speaking to Ukrainians this week, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was speaking to Tucker Carlson. One was a display of warts-and-all democracy. The other was authoritarianism wrapping itself in a thin cloak of reasonableness. You can probably guess which one was which, writes Allan Woods.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both made on-camera appearances Thursday, but they addressed different audiences with drastically different messages.
What they said and how they said it speaks volumes about the struggle of values underlying the struggles on the battlefield.
Speaking in a two-hour interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Putin's comments were an iron-man display designed to capitalize on slumping Western support for the collective defence of Ukraine and to push for a negotiated end to the war.
Zelenskyy spoke to the men and women who elected him following a reportedly tense backroom struggle to replace the Ukrainian army's popular top general part of an attempt to reignite the flickering flame of his country's two-year war effort.
One was a display of warts-and-all democracy. The other was authoritarianism wrapping itself in a thin cloak of reasonableness. You can probably guess which was which.
Of the two, Zelenskyy's words were more significant and of greater substance.
The Ukrainian leader is a former actor and master communicator. He has been making daily video speeches about the state of the war since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian missiles and tanks breached his country's borders.
But few of his social media clips have been so painfully honest.
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