European integration leading Ukraine to collapse - Medvedchuk
MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - A free trade area and the Association Agreement with the European Union will lead Ukraine to a socioeconomic collapse, Viktor Medvedchuk, Ukraine's special representative in the Trilateral Contact Group's subgroup on humanitarian matters and the leader of the Ukrainian Choice movement, said in a Saturday news program hosted by Sergei Brilev and shown on the Rossiya-1 (VGTRK) television channel.
"In our view, unfortunately, Ukraine is steadily moving toward a socioeconomic collapse," Medvedchuk said. "We cannot acknowledge today that there is no alternative to European integration, because the free trade area and the Association Agreement with the EU are leading to the country's de-industrialization and socioeconomic collapse," Medvedchuk said.
The free trade area agreement is causing GDP to decline and the prices and the number of the unemployed in Ukraine to grow, he said.
Ukraine should be not a buffer but a bridge between Europe and Russia, Medvedchuk said. "This can't be so, that's for sure," Medvedchuk said when the host referred to some U.S. experts suggesting that a buffer role between the West and the East could be the best scenario for Ukraine.
"We use such a term as 'bridge' between Europe and Russia. If there had been wise rulers in Ukraine over the past year, they would have used these very transport opportunities to promote the economy and change the situation, to develop the industrial and all other sectors," he said.
"But when there is not economy but politics in the foundation - moreover, I would call it some political toadyism - there can be no talk about the economy, not to mention its development," he said.
Ukraine should take advantage of its geopolitical location, Medvedchuk said. "And arguing and quarrelling, not to mention becoming enemies with your neighbor, is no good at all," he said.
Medvedchuk said he is firmly convinced that the peoples of Ukraine and Russia will never be enemies, "no matter how someone might want this to happen."
