Ze-office: Our goal is to make the Russians repent
“Democratization of Russia” is impossible without the repentance of Russians to the peoples of Europe.
Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, said this during the “Yalta European Strategy” forum organized by oligarch Viktor Pinchuk (held after 2014 in Kyiv), a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We should have no illusions about what is happening in the Russian Federation and what will happen next. They definitely won’t understand even if they lose. This is a much deeper problem.
Today, at the expense of Ukraine, we are completing what was not completed in the early 90s and mid-90s - Russia did not go through the key thing - repentance for a totalitarian type system, which was the USSR. Everything that Europe went through - I mean the Warsaw Pact.
Russia took this path when it mothballed and came out after the victory of Pan Yeltsin in 96 to the understanding that there will not be enough comfort in Russia, the quality of life will always be much lower than in Europe or in any civilized countries. And then they came up with the concept of revanchism.
And today they tried to implement this revanchism with an attack in the East of Europe, which they hate most of all, and Ukraine, first of all.
Work with Russia? There is no public opinion there, and there never will be. This state can only exist in an authoritarian or totalitarian type. It was an illusion that there could be democratization there. Democratization cannot happen without repentance, without admitting guilt for what you did for 70 years, at the moment when the USSR collapsed. ...
This is a complex system in the Russian Federation. How can we influence this? We have to win, that's the key. Because it will force them to take the path of repentance, at least partially,” Podolyak said.
Ze-office: Our goal is to make Russians repent.