Umid Isabaev comes outUkraine† Like the vast majority of his compatriots, this 41-year-old man’s life changed overnight the invasion of his country by Russian troops end of February. front first “bunker shelter while missiles rained down near Kiev”Umid Isabaev eventually chose to flee his country to go to Poland† like millions of other Ukrainians since the beginning of the war†
But if his case, which is unfortunately similar to that of so many other Ukrainians, attracts attention, it is because Umid Isabaev is the lookalike of the Ukrainian president-turned-national hero, Volodymyr Zelensky, reports the Washington Post†
It all started in 2019, after a photo of him taken on the Moscow metro — the city where he lived for more than a decade before moving to Ukraine — was posted online. Given the striking resemblance to Zelenski,,Umid was quickly contacted to make this condition his profession. He played a role in the series servant of the peoplewho also made Zelensky famous before he became president.
So if war breaks out in Ukraine, “Russians and Ukrainians offered him help, but [Umid] didn’t know who to trust. Especially since “Russian soldiers […] wanted to take him to Moscow to spread negative propaganda in Ukraine”. Faced with this pressure, it seems complicated for him to put together a plan to flee his country. It was without counting on an unlikely help: that of look-alikes from Vladimir Poutine and from Kim Jong-un†
“We are a tribe”
Howard X and Slawomir — who declined to release more information about their identities for fear of reprisals from North Korean and Russian security forces — are the lookalikes of Kim Jong-un and Putin, respectively. The two men first met in 2017 when they were named “performing together in an ad for the electronics company Wilson”. If they had never met Umid Isabaev then, they would have heard of him after his appearance in a documentary about lookalikes of male and female politicians.
When war breaks out in Ukraine at the end of February, Howard has only thoughts about Umid and the possible danger he finds himself in. He therefore decides to send her a message and offers to finance her exile to Poland. It is from the same country that Slawomir – Putin’s doppelganger – decides to intervene and “to stay in constant contact with the Zelensky look-a-like during his trip to Poland.”
Thanks to the kindness of these two men, Umid Isabaev arrived in Poland on March 12 after a week-long journey. On arrival, “Howard sent a car to pick him up and paid for his hotels.” Slawomir and Umid have since been able to meet and also discuss the war over a beer in a Polish bar.
“Life as a look-alike career politician can be fun, explains Howard. But it is also a risky business. It therefore seemed normal to lend Umid Isabaev a hand. †[Nous sommes] a tribe”concludes the doppelganger of the North Korean dictator.
