KYIV – When perhaps the country’s most popular singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk was going to give a sold-out concert at Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium on Independence Day the previous month, pundits speculated he would announce his candidacy for the March 2019 presidential race.
It has been such a popular topic ever since he completed a fellowship at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law during the autumn of 2017. So much so that Mr. Vakarchuk, 43, is often included in polls that gauge the public’s political preferences.
He hinted at his readiness to run by repeating the acronym – YES – of the 15th annual Yalta Europe Strategy meeting that was held on September 13-15. It was the fifth time the conference took place in Kyiv after it was relocated from Ukraine’s territory of Crimea once Russia forcibly took it over in March 2014.
“But don’t expect any loud political statements from me…it’s more important to start with the subject matter of what we should do next,” the possible contender told BBC HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur during a discussion about the nation’s future on September 15.
The civic activist and lead vocalist of the rock band Okean Elzy compared the crop of current presidential candidates and Ukraine’s political class to a steakhouse where vegetarians have few eating options if they don’t “want to violate his principles.”
That led to Mr. Sackur’s first question on whether the singer is “ready to eat meat.”
The Lviv native replied: “I’m not ready to violate my principles.”
Mr. Vakarchuk currently is the fourth favored presidential candidate with 6.5 percent of support, according to the latest public opinion survey conducted jointly by SOCIS, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov Center on August 30-September 9.
The nationwide poll surveyed 10,000 respondents instead of the usual 2,000-person sample size.
Ex-Prime Minister and current National Deputy Yulia Tymoshenko maintains a slim lead with 11 percent, followed by incumbent President Petro Poroshenko (7.1 percent) and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky (6.7 percent).
Former Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko is a step behind the rock singer with 6.3 percent, followed by pro-Russian Opposition Bloc leader Yuriy Boiko (6 percent).
Mr. Vakarchuk is no stranger to politics, having served one year in Parliament after the Orange Revolution before renouncing his seat due to a corrupt political climate in 2008. He spent much time during that popular uprising and the 2014 Revolution of Dignity on stage to keep the freezing protesters entertained and inspired by his uplifting speeches.
At the YES conference, the singer said “stealing” is the main word association he has with politicians who’ve run the country for the past 27 years.
He lauded calls at the conference for Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO, but criticized the lack of substance “among politicians” who don’t implement the main criterion for acceptance: establishing the rule of law.
“Who can say here that we’re really heading in that direction?” he asked. “Why don’t this government or the previous ones want to institutionalize the rule of law?”
Mr. Vakarchuk also noted an incomplete precondition – that of reforming the courts, an institution that has one of the lowest levels of public trust in Ukrainian society.
He alluded to a non-profit organization – Center for Economic Strategy – that he co-founded and its projects consisting of “people who stand behind me.” He said all of them “combined have courage, power and force, which is unstoppable… and we won’t stop.”
Although the civic activist said he is “ready to change my country,” he didn’t say whether in politics or at the public advocacy level.
Saying he doesn’t “trust” the political class, Mr. Vakarchuk added that “they’ve done nothing, tell us the same thing over and over again, then sit inside their Mercedes’ and go back to their villas.”
Still, Mr. Vakarchuk wouldn’t clarify whether he’ll run for president, when pressed repeatedly by the interviewer.
Afterwards, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said that the singer “sounded like a presidential candidate to me” and added that “Ukraine is fortunate to have so many strong presidential candidates!”
Mr. Vakarchuk holds a degree in theoretical physics and regularly makes the Ukrainian magazines’ lists of the 100 most influential people.