In April, Ukrainian voters took a desperate gamble and elected as their president a television performer who played a humble 30-something schoolteacher, Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko, on a show called “Servant of the People.” On the show, a rant by Mr. Holoborodko against Ukraine’s culture of corruption had gone viral, capturing the mood of a young country profoundly frustrated by the state of affairs and ready for change.

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