| “ | Good morning, Mr. President. | „ |
| ~ Yuriy Chuiko meets Vasily Goloborodko. |
| “ | Just as I thought, living like a human being is not about them. They can only push each other off a cliff... like a human being. | „ |
| ~ Yuriy about the leaders of newly formed subjects of Ukraine. |
Yuriy Ivanovich Chuiko is the antagonist-turned-deuteragonist of the 2015 Ukrainian political satire comedy television series Servant of the People created and produced by Kvartal 95 and the current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was a comedian at that time.
He is a smart and experienced politician and a corrupt prime minister of Ukraine, who has been stealing money from the country's budget for many years, and also serves the oligarchs. Chuiko's plans change when Vasily Goloborodko, a simple and honest history teacher, becomes the new president of Ukraine.
Yuriy Chuiko was portrayed by People's Artist of Ukraine Stanislav Boklan.
Appearance[]
Yuriy Chuiko is an elderly man with gray, styled hair and a very expressive face. The eyes are squinted. Most often he wears strict suits with ties, as well as expensive watches.
After Yuriy staged his death, he was forced to constantly put on makeup and wear wigs, often preferring the image of the Russian musician Igor Nikolaev.
Personality[]
Yuriy Chuiko is an incredibly successful manipulator and master of words, capable of luring almost anyone to his side with sweet speeches. The Prime Minister is also an amazing liar and a master of persuasion. He successfully held the most powerful post in the government of Ukraine for many years and pulled off hundreds of corruption schemes to get richer, until President Goloborodko finally got him arrested.
During a trip to Ukraine in the second season of the show, a teaser-bracelet was attached to Yuriy's leg, with which Tolik, Vasily's bodyguard, electrocuted him every time Chuiko disobeyed. At these moments, the eternally calm and confident political wolf broke down and showed how angry and aggressive he could actually be (which also created a lot of funny situations).
Biography[]
Servant of the People[]
Yuriy Chuiko meets Vasily Goloborodko.
After a simple history teacher Vasily Goloborodko won the election by complete surprise even for himself, Yuriy Chuiko arrives at Vasily's apartment to meet the new president of Ukraine. The Prime Minister introduces Goloborodko to the world of politics, in parallel, unsuccessfully trying to corrupt him, now and then advising "not to think much" and cooperate with the oligarchs.
Having taken his loyal team of friends to the posts of ministers, Goloborodko begins to investigate a large-scale corruption scheme with the theft of a huge amount of money from the country's budget. Vasily and the head of the SBU Mikael Tasunyan come up with a clever plan: they paint the money, which the Bugai, a corrupt banker and one of the links in the criminal chain, will have to hand over to an unknown receiver under the code name "Milady", with luminescent paint. On the same day, Vasily Goloborodko and Yuriy Chuiko are invited to the political show "Dialog". The President explains his plan and asks to turn off the lights: at that moment, the Prime Minister's hands begin to glow in the dark and everyone understands that he is the receiver.
Yuriy is arrested.
Servant of the People 2. From love to impeachment[]
Chuiko is caught with fluorescent paint on his hands.
President Vasily Goloborodko has been in power for almost six months. To stabilize the situation in the country, Goloborodko needs to receive financial assistance from the IMF, which can be provided if reforms are introduced in Ukraine and anti-corruption laws. However, the Verkhovna Rada, which is secretly led by oligarchs, blocks the vote on the package of these laws.
Vasily is forced to seek help from Yuriy Chuiko, whom he himself put behind bars after a corruption scandal. Chuiko is developing a clever strategy in which it is necessary to artificially create a conflict of interests among the oligarchs and force the Verkhovna Rada to adopt a package of unpopular anti-corruption laws among deputies. After staging Chuiko's death, as a result of the explosion of the truck that "transported" him from prison, Vasily and Yuriy go on a trip to Ukraine while the oligarchs try to stop them by hiring "titushky", the brute mercenary agents. The duo succeeds in carrying out their plans and Vasily allows Yuriy to escape from the country.
After the failed reforms carried out at the request of the IMF, Goloborodko resigns, but puts forward his candidacy for the next presidential election of Ukraine. The second half of the season is entirely devoted to his attempts to win back the love of the people with the help of a spectacular election program, while the oligarchs are trying to beat him in the election race using their puppet Dmitry Surikov.
Yuriy as "Igor Nikolaev".
Surikov freezes Yuriy Chuiko's accounts in order to lure him out of the shadows and give false testimony against Vasily on television. Surikov wins the election and imprisons Goloborodko and Chuiko.
Servant of the People 3. Choice[]
Yuriy meets Vasily in prison and even saves him from an assassination attempt. While Goloborodko is behind bars the government of Ukraine is replaced many times. EU leaders react to the chaos in Ukraine and help Chuiko to be released from custody by making him EU Representative for Ukraine. After recounting the votes from Surikov's election, Vasily Goloborodko becomes president again, and Yuriy becomes his curator.
Together, the duo is bringing together Ukraine, after it was split into a huge number of subjects.
Quotes[]
| “ | I admire your asceticism! Did you have any Spartans in your family? | „ |
| ~ Yuriy mocking Vasily. |
| “ | Losing my grip… | „ |
| ~ Chuiko's catchphrase when something doesn't go according to his plan. |
| “ | This is not quite right. It was necessary to somehow cover this voyage of ours, we should invite the media. | „ |
| ~ Chuiko, after President Goloborodko decided to go to work by bus. |
| “ | It's not scary when people laugh at you, it's scarier when they cry over you. | „ |
| ~ Yuriy Chuiko. |
Trivia[]
- The code name worn by Yuriy Chuiko for a large-scale corruption scheme is "Milady", which is the name of the character Milady de Winter from the novel The Three Musketeers (1844) by Alexandre Dumas.
- Chuiko chose this code name for himself, because in the student theater he had to play all the female roles, one of which was Milady.
- Chuiko's autobiographical book "My path" is obviously a reference to Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf", which translates from German as "My path" or "My fight".
- Chuiko's prison nickname "Boklan" is a reference to the surname of his actor Stanislav Boklan.