Today Russians are celebrating The Day of Russia. We sincerely congratulate all Russians on this holiday and wish them goodness and prosperity. Any date is also an opportunity to sum up the previous year and assess the direction in which the country is moving. And the end of last year proved that Russia is lacking former unanimity. After the December elections to the State Duma hundreds of thousands of Russians went into the streets to protest against the falsifications during the voting and counting of votes. The March presidential elections did not bring calmness either. Today, on The Day of Russia, Russian oppositionists are taking part in the action “March of Millions of June 12” – The Day of Russia without Putin under the slogan: “Go into the street, bring the country back to you!” Typically, literally on the eve of this action President Vladimir Putin, elected for the third term, signed the law, which stipulates for severer punishment for holding demonstration without permission of the authorities. Many experts consider that current Ukrainian power is largely trying to follow the Kremlin’s actions. Therefore a logical question arises: which things unite and disunite Ukraine and Russia? Below you will find the commentaries of Ukrainian and Russian experts.
COMMENTARIES
Ihor SLISARENKO, foreign-affairs journalist:
“What brings together and separates Russia and Ukraine at the current stage is a common oligarchic and bureaucratic system. It is a system under which a small group of people reaps the fruits of societal labor and uses governmental offices for their own enrichment. At the same time, this common feature separates the two states at this stage. There are two warring factions inside the so-called Russian elite: one is pro-Western and the other nurtures the ambition of bringing Russia back into the circle of key worldwide players. We are watching this struggle. Each of these parts strives to attract Ukraine. While the former wants to see Ukraine as territory for its business and enrichment, the latter wants Ukraine to share the ambition of becoming a new world player. The Ukrainian elite will benefit neither from being swallowed up by former group nor from participating in the ambitious plan offered by the latter group. In spite of its different political colors, the Ukrainian elite prefers a Ukraine that resembles Olekdandr Korniichuk’s collective farm ‘Quiet Life,’ where you can use the fruits of someone else’s works and live in a united Europe to your heart’s content.”
Yurii SHCHERBAK, fiction and political writer:
“The destiny and mentality of the Russian people have been shaped for centuries on end by a classical triad, a genetic code of sorts: the imperial great-power nature of development and expansion, an autocratic and slavocratic form of government, and a Byzantine messianic bellicose ideology.
“All the undeniable and globally-recognized achievements of the Russian people in art, science, and technology, all defeats and tragedies, all aspirations for freedom, which often assumed the shape of a mindless revolt or tyrannical communism, were part of this triad.
“As a country enslaved by Russia, Ukraine tasted all the ‘delights’ of existing in an autocratic – tsarist or Bolshevik – empire, having paid a terrible price of ‘eternal brotherly friendship’ – millions of victims, deportations to Siberia, the loss of its national identity, Russification, indifference, and a widespread ‘Little Russia mentality.’
“Russia is facing a historical choice today: either to form a globalization-era normal, democratic, and modernized state or to embark again upon the fatal road of restoring the empire, infringing democratic rights and freedoms, national enslavement, and Russification of all the peoples that are part of the empire.
“Unfortunately, the new coming to power of Putin-3 shows that the Russian leadership is opting for an outdated and economically ineffective imperial model which can bring new sufferings to the peoples of Russia and the neighboring countries and end up with a major disaster and the breakup of Russia.
“The Yanukovych regime, which is following Putin’s path, quite in the spirit of the Ukrainian proverb ‘A horse is being shod, but a frog offers a foot,’ by imposing Russification and re-Sovietization of Ukraine, has already proved its social ineffectiveness and is sure to be swept away by the course of history.
“We should only pray that the impeding changes in Russia and Ukraine should occur in a peaceful way.”
Oleksandr SUSHKO, director, Institute of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation:
“Our countries share the same historical past and the related sentiments and emotions that affect public awareness. Therefore, a large number of people identify themselves with the past which Ukraine’s close association with Russia is an integral part of. Another important point is a certain common socio-cultural legacy that determines, to a large extent, the methods of governance and business activity as well as relationship between the state, business, and society.
“Ukraine and Russia also share the attitude of their ruling elites to ordinary people. Clearly, the merger of the authorities and big business and the ensuing pattern of corruption are also similar to some extent.
“As for what is different, the key point is that Ukraine, which became independent following the breakup of the USSR, is interested in having its independence strengthened. It is interested in the irreversible disintegration of the former Soviet Union as well as of all the other imperial and neo-imperial entities. By contrast, Russia is interested in the reincarnation of the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union in the shape of what is known as Eurasian Union. Russia is devising a lot of ways to force or prompt the countries of this region to join this kind of entities. Ukraine is undoubtedly not interested in this because it will lose its independence if it enters an entity like this.
“The main difference is that Russia is an energy-producing country which lives off its fuel sales and, accordingly, is interested in energy resources going up in price. Ukraine, as one of Europe’s biggest consumers of fuel, is, on the contrary, interested in the reduction of prices for and consumption of Russian energy resources.
“With due account of certain strategic goals, Ukraine is interested in the formation of an integrated European space, in which it could be a full-fledged participant and partner. By contrast, Russia would like to see Europe divided into two rivaling blocs and to lead one of them. But Ukraine will never befit from the formation of a bipolar Europe.”
Lilia SHEVTSOVA, leading scholarly associate, Moscow Carnegie Center:
“As for the Ukrainian and Russian societies, it is doubtless that what ultimately unites them is aspiration for a better life, freedom, European standards and rule of law, even though there are traditional and archaic strata in both of them. As far as the ruling classes of Russia and Ukraine are concerned, there is also something that unites them. What is common for them is a desire to survive at the expense of simulations, profanations, corruption, foul play, populism, and reliance on loyal henchmen. As we see, both the societies and the ruling elites have something in common. But the ruling classes are also trying to preserve themselves by way of exaggerating differences and antagonism, deliberately fueling mistrust and suspicions in the relations between the two states, as well as by playing on these suspicions and mutual misunderstanding.
“There are, of course, differences in national political interests, as there are some between, say, France and Germany. But the current differences between Russia and Ukraine often sound illusory in the wording of the present-day ruling elites and are essentially serving the interests of the survival of the ruling classes rather than the interests of our nations.
“Naturally, living together in the Soviet Union, people would come closer owing to mixed marriages (for example, I come from the family of a Russian father and a Ukrainian mother), human relationships, common culture, closely-related mentality, and the experience of residing next to each other. But, at the same time, living in the Soviet Union was a factor that warped, as a result of the ruling Soviet class’s policy, the Russian people’s minds. On the one hand, the closely-knit Soviet society facilitated people-to-people contacts, which is an indisputable fact. This fact resulted in a lot people identifying themselves as Russian-Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Russian. I belong to this stratum of people. Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom I often discuss our past, is also a product of the Russian-Ukrainian blood-mixing, if I may say so, and mentality. And we notice this in our behavior. But, at the same time, living in the Soviet past, we could not possibly understand that the Ukrainians are a specific, separate nation with its own culture and history and perhaps far greater pretensions to what we call Russian roots. On the other hand, we did not let the Ukrainians understand that the Russian nation also had a lot of original and specific features because we were still in the thrall Soviet mentality and, therefore, had not yet identified ourselves as a nation.”
Valerii CHALY, deputy director of the Razumkov Center:
“The most important thing that unites the two countries is the presence of common borders. Our common past of being one Soviet state also is a factor that has had either plus or minus effect on our current relationship. Today we should speak less about common family relations between the citizens of the two states. Thus, kinship from the past is gradually disappearing as one of the important factors. Culture is what can be an additional basis for development of extra contact between people.
“The basic positions that can enhance the rapprochement of Ukraine and Russia are likely to be the concurrence of economic interests, including those in the energy sector. Our contacts and interaction occur mainly on the level of clerk offices, presidents, governments, but, unfortunately, they don’t move on to the levels of interaction between business communities and expert communities. This is what we have lost in the recent years.
“What concerns the integration processes, it is obvious that Russia has a very stable and obsessive desire to involve Ukraine in the sphere of their integration projects, through the Customs Union, and the future Eurasian Union. Ukraine is taking such intentions very cautiously and is consistently fulfilling the program, defined by the law and the national interests of the state, and the strategy of European integration.
“It is clear that Ukraine and Russia will not have any common foreign policy or security policy, but there are challenges and threats, including those in the sphere of security, to which we can and should seek solutions together.
“European integration of the country is unlikely to be successful if the issues of strategic character would not be solved between Ukraine and Russia. This does not mean that Ukraine should not accept all the requests and wishes of the Kremlin. We have our own national interests that we can implement also in mutually effective cooperation with our partners. Russia is a very important partner for Ukraine. On this holiday I would like to wish Russia success in its modernization. It would be great to see that modernization is accompanied by democratic processes. Strong competitive democratic Russia is the perspective that can find support among Ukrainians.”
