Vyacheslav MADULIAK, third year history student: Don’t you think that one of the problems facing Ukrainian society, including our political system, is the absence of nationalists?
Larysa IVSHYNA: You know, Vyacheslav, you are absolutely right. What we currently know as nationalism or patriotism is quite active, for there are patriots in general and those knowing exactly what has to be done. This kind of nationalism should, of course, permeate society as well as state structures. I understand nationalism differently, as efforts aimed at asserting the position of one’s nation in the world by way of healthy competition, never at the expense of other nations.
How do you feel about Tuzla?
IVSHYNA: I’d tell all romantics that the conflict is an alarming and very sensitive occurrence; it’s like cold shower on both our politicians and ordinary citizens. We are a young nation state, but the Ukrainian nation is one of the oldest peoples of Europe. The inviolability of the nation’s border is subconsciously a very painful issue for Ukrainians, as it is for any other nations. The current situation could be regarded as an attempted annexation. You remember that the United States and Russia were the guarantors of our security. Now we know the Russian stand. But did we hear an adequate response from Washington or Brussels? No, we didn’t. Those traveling abroad to collect votes should do so here in Ukraine. Our political beau monde turned out to be helpless. When we looked to experts to explain the situation, the most talkative were nowhere to be found. Perhaps they thought that power was changing hands in this country.
V. UZHYTSKA, philology student: What’s your attitude toward the Single Economic Space?
IVSHYNA: I think an economist would give you a more qualified answer, but I thought it over and wondered if the whole project is so advantageous, why not invite Estonia or Latvia? Why did they use arguments that would fall apart the very next day? They said the SES members would be supplied gas at Russia’s domestic market costs and several days later resolutely reversed themselves. The result is obvious: free cheese is to be had only in a mousetrap. We must reach the European standard and join the Euro-Atlantic community first. That economic space is a political one in the first place and the whole thing is good for the Russian election campaign.
