Poroshenko struts before world media even before results are in

Switching easily between his native tongue, Russian and English, billionaire “chocolate king” Petro Poroshenko was happy to strut his stuff before the world’s media on Sunday — even before being officially elected Ukraine’s new president.

The self-made billionaire took to the stage in a hail of flashbulbs at a post-election press conference in a trendy Kiev art gallery where he declared himself the winner only minutes after exit polls had been released.

Wearing a striped tie in Ukraine’s national colours of blue and yellow, he fired off a series of lofty pledges — to end the “war” raging in the east of the country and to negotiate with powerful neighbour Russia — as he joked with the assembled media throng.

“All the surveys show that the election was successfully concluded in a first round and that the country now has a new president,” the 48-year-old said.

Just minutes earlier, a survey issued by three respected polling institutes had declared him the overwhelming victor with 56 percent of the vote — thereby averting a second round vote that could have added to political uncertainty in a country enduring its bloodiest and most tumultuous crisis.

Not only had he apparently won a decisive victory over his closest rival, former prime minister and Orange Revolution heroine Yulia Tymoshenko, he was also able to celebrate another victory — for his trusty supporter Vitali Klitschko.

Klitschko, a champion boxer who became a hugely popular figurehead for the protests that toppled the pro-Moscow regime in February, dropped out of the race for president in March to support Poroshenko.

But in tandem local elections on Sunday, the 42-year-old Klitschko was also declared a winner by exit polls — as mayor of the capital Kiev.

– ‘United Ukraine’ –

“We did everything possible to complete the election process and will launch reforms as soon as possible,” said the former heavyweight boxer, sitting alongside Poroshenko on the stage.

Poroshenko himself, a 10-year political veteran who is worth an estimated $1.6 billion, hailed the victory of a “united” Ukraine and its certain path towards Europe as a result of Sunday’s election.

However, despite a robust turnout in Kiev and the west of Ukraine, voters were largely prevented from casting their ballots — or did not want to — in the eastern industrial regions where pro-Russian rebels launched an insurgency seven weeks ago.

The two areas where the separatists have declared their own independent states — and where few polling stations were open on Sunday — account for 15 percent of Ukraine’s 36 million voters.

And Poroshenko was short on specifics about how to end the fighting in the east and rebuild ties with Russia, often repeating similar refrains heard during his election campaign.

After the formal part of the press conference is over he is quizzed further by the media.

Where will be your first visit abroad? Probably neighbouring Poland. When will you be sworn in? As soon as possible, there’s lots of work to do.

In response to a journalist from Russia’s state news agency ITAR-TASS who addressed him as president elect, he said relations with Moscow were at “their lowest in 200 years” but said there were “formulas” for negotiations to resolve their differences.

Poroshenko, who runs a vast empire encompassing not only confectionary but also vehicle manufacture and shipbuilding, confidently switched from English to the language of Pushkin to answer journalists’ questions.

And when a Ukrainian journalist asked him — the owner of the Kanal 5 television network — whether he could guarantee the freedom of the press he said, presumably jokingly, “No.”