Ukrainian politician plagiarizes Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech almost word for word

Steve Jobs is a legendary orator with a conversational but magnetic style that is so impressive that books have been written about how to emulate his style. Recently, the Ukrainian Secretary of National Security and Defense, Raisa Bogatyreva, decided that she loved Steve Jobs’ speech to Stanford in 2005 so much that she would just copy it outright, reports Focus Ukraine.

The apparent plaigarism was outed by the site Ukranian Truth, which has published a set of excerpts from both Jobs’ speech and Bogatyreva’s. The excerpts, while translated somewhat awkwardly, seemed pretty solid in their proof. While some of the phraseology is transposed by translation, the concepts, and in some cases key phrases, are all there.

We spoke to a translator, Alexander Mankuta, who verified that the speech did in fact bear an uncanny resemblance to the Apple CEO’s. Enough to make it completely obvoius that it was a duplicate. Here are some quotes collated by iSmashPhone and and verified by our translator:

Raisa Bogatyreva: Knowledge, that you’ve got today in these walls, your character, fate, life, or at least karma, will help you to find the right answer.

Steve Jobs: You’ll have to stand on somethething. On your character, fate, life, karma, anything.

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Bogatyreva: up to 33 years, I was not paying attention to the saying: If you live each day like the last, ever to do it.

Jobs: When I was 17, I came across a quote if you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.

–

Bogatyreva: I am honored to be here with you today, the day when the graduates receive diplomas. In one of the best higher educational institutions of our country … I want to share with you today the findings of his own life and his own political experience. There are three conclusions. Nothing is absolutely tremendous. There are three conclusions.

Jobs: I am honored to be with you today at the presentation of diplomas of one of the best universities in the world … I tell you three stories from my life. Just three stories. Nothing grand. Just three stories.

–

Bogatyreva: Death approached me very closely. Closer than it is now, at my age, having lived through that moment, I can tell you – nobody wants to die.

Jobs: Death then came to me the closest. And, hopefully, the closest thing to the next few decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this with more certainty than when death was a useful but purely abstract concept that no one wants to die.

Focus Ukraine also provided a video comparison of the two speeches showing Bogatyrev’s speech alongside Job’s 2005 address. Mankuta said that the similarities are apparently obvious if you speak the language.

The Ukranian Security Council has been quick to distance themselves from Bogatyrev’s copycat ways, saying that “She decides what she will say she corrects the text, she takes part in the writing,” it also said that she ‘reads a lot’ and that Jobs’ speech may have inspired her.”

If you’re interested in comparing the two directly, you can find Jobs’ speech here in full. There’s also a video of it here, it’s definitely worth a watch as it’s a really good speech. Obviously good enough for foreign heads of state anyway.