Why New Year trumps Christmas in Russia

What a difference a decade makes. Exactly ten years ago, Russians celebrated New Year by watching Goluboi Ogoniek (‘Little Blue Light’) the traditional TV programme – full of glitz, music, Moët and laughter – which ushers in 1 January. Three men dominated Goluboi Ogoniek that particular year. On YouTube, anchorman Vladimir Soloviev can be seen smiling like a pussycat over the merrymaking. Co-presenter is Maxim Galkin, the Soviet-born Israeli comedian married to singing legend Alla Pugacheva. But the biggest surprise is the third of the trio – a compact, intense little man with black hair and a gravelly voice, singing, capering and cracking up the Russian audience with his one-liners. His face is familiar even if the dinner jacket and black tie have today been traded for combat fatigues. He’s none other than Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, leader of Ukraine.

It’s safe to say all three have moved on now. Soloviev – now Putin’s telly propagandist-in-chief – makes a living thundering nightly against the West, wearing a Blake’s 7-style tunic on Channel 1.