Character page for Servant of the People.
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The President & his team
Vasily Petrovych Goloborodko
Played by: Volodymyr Zelenskyy
A high school history teacher who gets elected the President of Ukraine in a landslide.
- Fish out of Water: He has no experience with the nitty-gritty of politics, but he's a quick learner.
- The Idealist: Played with. He truly believes in fighting corruption, and that people are generally good at heart, but he doesn't ignore the fact that a huge part of Ukrainian society is corrupt and will lie and cheat to bring him down.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: At least he seems to be, what with his firm anti-corruption principles. When his enemies try to dig up dirt on him, they find it hard to find records of him doing anything bad.
- Meaningful Name: "Goloborodko" translates to "bare-chin", which could mean "young and inexperienced".
- Our Presidents Are Different: Vasily is an idealistic, devoted and honest president, who lives with his parents, rides a bicycle to work (when he doesn't take a bus) and overall thinks and acts as a regular person. He does have some trouble with many aspects of high-powered politics, but that is more due to his complete lack of relevant experience than anything else.
- Rightful King Returns: After a chaos rulers, injustice prison life and region been separated, he had been the one in season 3.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Despite obviously being able to enrich himself (as seen in real life, unfortunately), Vasiliy insists on being honest at work and living a modest lifestyle, and does not accept bribes. This also applies to the members of his team.
Olya Yuriyivna Mischenko
Played by: Elena Kravets
Vasily's ex-wife. He names her as head of the Central Bank.
- The Smurfette Principle: She's the only woman in Vasily's close circle of advisers, at least until Anna comes along.
Sergey Viktorovich Mukhin
Played by: Yevhen Koshovyy
A former actor who Vasily appointed as Foreign Minister.
- The Casanova: He's quite the ladies' man, and uses his seduction skills to get advantageous deals for Ukraine.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: His first press conference consists of him mentioning that all Africans are black and asking the press if the word "negroes" (a term he repeatedly used) is offensive. Apparently, a joke he cracked afterwards was so offensive the news anchor outright mentioned that it couldn't be aired on TV.
Mikhaylo Ivanovich Sanin
Played by: Yury Krapov
The Minister of Finances.
Ivan Andreyevich Skorik
Played by: Oleksandr Pikalov
A navy captain and old friend of Vasily's, now the Minister of Defense.
Nina Yegorovna Tretyak
Played by: Tetyana Pechonkina
Vasily's former teacher, and briefly the head of State Security Service.
- Chemically-Induced Insanity: She is slipped a drug by her underlings, who resent the new administration's anti-corruption stance (and also probably hate taking orders from a woman). It goes into effect when she visits a bar after work, and they videotape her dancing and singing in the rain like she's in a musical. She flees the country in disgrace. Later, Mikhail, her replacement, discovers what happened to her and does the same thing to the security agents.
- Put on a Bus: She only lasts a couple episodes before fleeing the country in disgrace after being slipped a madness-inducing drug.
Mikhail Ashotovich Tasunyan
Played by: Mykhailo Fatalov
An old friend of Vasily, who takes over as head of State Security after Nina Yegorovna resigns.
- Malaproper: Being an Armenian, he sometimes mixes up words in Ukrainian or Russian.
Anna Mikhailovna
Played by: Halyna Bezruk (Season 1), Anastasia Chepelyuk (Season 2)
General Adviser to the president, formerly a member of the Ministry for Development, and Vasily's girlfriend/mistress. She's also secretly The Mole for the oligarchs.
Goloborodko family
Petro Vasillyevich Goloborodko
Played by: Viktor Saraykin
Vasily's father, an unlicensed taxi driver.
Mariya Goloborodko
Played by: Natalya Sumska
Vasily's mother, a nurse.
Svetlana "Sveta" Petrovna Sakhno
Played by: Kateryna Kisten
Vasily's sister.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: After she's fired from a government job she managed to talk her way into, she tries leveraging her status as the President's sister to become a business owner in various industries.
Natasha Sakhno
Played by: Anna Koshmal
Sveta's daughter, and Vasily's niece.
Dima Goloborodko
Played by: Rinat Khabibulin
Vasily and Olya's son.
Other Government Officials
Yuriy Ivanovich Chuiko
Played by: Stanislav Boklan
The Prime Minister of Ukraine.
- Affably Evil: Despite being a corrupt Sleazy Politician, he's almost always cordial and friendly with Vasiliy.
- Butt-Monkey: In Season 2, when he has to go around the country incognito with Vasiliy, he has to wear a Shock Collar on his ankle, which Tolik takes glee in using.
- Evil Chancellor: While more smug and selfish than outright evil, the prime minister is definitely not on Vasiliy's side. Played straight later on when he is revealed to be in bed with the three oligarchs. His successor in season 2 turns out to be even worse.
Bella Rudolfovna
Played by: Valentyna Ishchenko
Vasily's secretary.
- Loyal to the Position: She worked for several previous presidents, and has remained in her position because she's loyal to the office rather than to individual politicians.
- Put on a Bus: In Season 2, she vanishes, with a brief mention of her having retired.
Oksana Skovoroda
Played by: Olha Zhukovtsova-Kyiashko
Mukhin's assistant.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: She is vastly more competent than Mukhin at pretty much anything to do with foreign affairs. She knows foreign languages, customs, and when not to translate whatever offensive thing her boss just said.
- Not So Above It All: When she and Mukhin are stalling the IMF representatives, she seems to enjoy the scheme of getting them drunk every night as much as Mukhin does, and helps him pull it off.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Not that she wasn't attractive before, in a Glasses Are Sexy way, but when she starts Letting Her Hair Down and takes off her glasses, she becomes a full-on Sexy Secretary and catches Mukhin's attention.
Tolya
Played by: Heorhiy Povolotskyy
Vasily's bodyguard. Initially one of several dozen bodyguards who Vasily fired, he alone was later hired back.
- The Big Guy: He is very big and tall, and has an intimidating presence.
- The Quiet One: He hardly ever speaks.
Dmitry Surikov
Played by: Dmytro Surzhykov
Olya's new boyfriend, and head of the Central Bank of Ukraine after she becomes acting Prime Minister. Later on he's promoted to PM himself.
- Bald of Evil: He's bald, and as his motives are revealed it's clear he's no good guy.
- Wild Card: He helps Goloborodko (or at least pretends to), but also works with the oligarchs. During the presidential racein Season 2, he campaigns as well, as a spoiler candidate.
Others
The Oligarchs
Played by: Vladimir Goryanskiy (Rustem Mamatov), Yuriy Grebelnik (Andrey Nemchuk), Dmitry Lalenkov (Mikhail Roizman)
Three oligarchs who try to take down Goloborodko.
- Cosmopolitan Council: Downplayed. Of the three oligarchs, Nemchuk is ethnically Ukrainian, Mamatov is a Tatar, and Roizman is Jewish. You wouldn't know that from looking at them, though.
- Evil Cripple: One of three Big Bad oligarchs is sometimes wheelchairbound.
- Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: They spend as much time arguing as they do actually trying to take Vasiliy down.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: During the events of the movie and the corresponding arc of season 2, the oligarch Mikhail Roizman is replaced by his brother, as he has business to attend in London. If not for two casually delivered lines (one about leaving for London and his brother taking over his business for the time being, and another one about being back and asking what he missed), a casual viewer could easily think Roizman had been
temporarily recast. It doesn't help that the two brothers are never seen together, and after Mikhail Roizman is arrested, his brother also vanishes.
