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Video tags
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Russian
00:00:00
The escalation of the conflict around Ukraine continues.00:00:03
And today this is the main news, which worries even those
who don’t follow the news too closely.00:00:07
All the world's leading politicians make daily
statements regarding a possible war.00:00:13
Diplomats are in a hurry to leave Ukraine, embassies
are being closed or moved from Kyiv.00:00:19
And ordinary people in Ukraine are looking
for the nearest bomb shelter to them.00:00:23
All this news is more like a movie.00:00:26
It is hard to believe that someone in all seriousness
today can discuss a global war in the modern world,00:00:32
even with the use of nuclear weapons.00:00:34
If Ukraine joins NATO and takes back Crimea by military means,00:00:41
then Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers,
and even ahead of many in some components.00:00:47
There will be no winners.00:00:49
It is even more difficult to imagine that there could be
an open and large-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine.00:00:55
Although quite a lot of events have taken place between
Russia and Ukraine over the past 10 years,00:00:59
which, before that, no one could even imagine.00:01:03
Last year, it was 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.00:01:07
One country broke up into 15 independent states.00:01:10
All last year I produced 15 films about each former republic.00:01:14
There was also a film about Ukraine, it was not very successful,
because I could not personally come to the country, I was denied entry.00:01:20
It was wrong to make a film like this from afar,
without personally plunging into the problem.00:01:25
Therefore, today I want to give the floor to Maxim Katz.00:01:28
At the end of last year, he traveled around Ukraine, talked to people.00:01:32
And, it seems to me, he told very well what is happening there today,00:01:36
how Ukraine lives, how Ukraine lived its 30 years
of independence and what it has come to today.00:02:22
It is very difficult to shoot a video about Ukraine,
but we decided to try again.00:02:27
We made this video at the request of Ilya.00:02:31
I found it important for two main reasons.00:02:35
First, I want the Russians to understand
what is happening in Ukraine.00:02:40
Our propaganda only lies about this country.00:02:44
There is very little objective information,
and it is not easy to find it.00:02:47
And it seemed important to us that it be here, on Ilya’s channel.00:02:50
On this very large Russian socio-political channel.00:02:54
Secondly, it seems to me that the attitude towards Ilya
that happened after that video is unfair.00:03:01
Yes, it was unsuccessful00:03:03
but it was at Varlamov that Russian readers looked
for information about many important events in Ukraine.00:03:10
He was on the Maidan and showed everything objectively.00:03:13
Then it was, perhaps, the only objective
source of information in Runet.00:03:18
Everyone followed the events on the Maidan on Ilya's channel.00:03:22
This YouTube channel continues to be one of the
largest socio-political media projects independent of the authorities in Russia.00:03:29
A channel like this one needs an objective
and a detailed video about Ukraine.00:03:35
And we tried to make it.00:03:37
I hope it worked out.00:03:39
Let's get started.00:03:52
30 years ago, in December 1991, with
the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords00:03:58
Ukraine finally ceased to be part of the Soviet Union,
having acquired state sovereignty.00:04:04
Russia and Ukraine are a rather paradoxical example
of countries that are very similar in terms of basic things,00:04:10
very close in all respects, while with a very different fate.00:04:15
Both of them, together with Belarus, are the three most
Soviet republics of all Soviet ones in the past.00:04:21
Let's say the Baltics are, in fact, internal foreign countries.00:04:25
In Central Asia and the Caucasus, the inertia
of traditional societies is very strong,00:04:29
with the communal life of which even the Soviet
government, in fact, could do little.00:04:35
But we were affected by Soviet power,
the Soviet way of life more than anyone else.00:04:43
Forced industrialization, collectivization, Holodomor,
all the horrors of the Stalinist regime,00:04:49
general and permanent shortage of goods
of first necessity, all the authorities of the nomenklatura,00:04:55
collection of products for the New Year's table
for two months from a chain of corrupt deals,00:05:00
Soviet education, Soviet culture, Soviet idea of a career,
wealth, and one's place in the world.00:05:07
It is no coincidence that it was the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
who formally signed the death of the Union in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.00:05:14
Because the Union, as a single state in one form or another,
could well exist without Estonia, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia,00:05:21
Without all the parts that have actually gained sovereignty.00:05:24
But without the three main republics on which he relied, it could not.00:05:29
Today Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are still three very similar countries.00:05:34
Urbanized to the limit: everywhere the urban population is over 70%,00:05:38
educated: all retained a diploma of higher education as
a social norm, as a necessary minimum,00:05:45
everywhere the average age of a resident is about 40 years old,00:05:49
all carry a lot of rudiments of the Soviet state,
starting from the format of social security,00:05:54
and ending with regulation and the degree
of government involvement in the economy.00:05:58
And not even an actual degree,
but a representation of society as it should be.00:06:04
Everyone is, from a fundamental
point of view, in a very good position.00:06:08
All stuffed with basic economic benefits.00:06:12
But each country is much poorer than it could be.00:06:14
Every time in a critical situation, like the current
coronavirus crisis and the vaccination campaign,00:06:20
these similarities of ours are a common heritage,
post-totalitarian atomization, distrust of each other, of institutions,00:06:27
the format of the relationship between society
and power are as if the general Soviet history ended just yesterday.00:06:34
Nevertheless, despite all, sometimes even frightening similarities,00:06:37
Nevertheless, despite all, sometimes even frightening similarities,00:06:43
and how pseudoscientific any talk about mentality
as some kind of innate and unchanging entity is,00:06:49
entity determining the political structure of states.00:06:52
Culturally and historically related
peoples speaking the same language,00:06:57
having lived in one state for 70 years with
a very conditional republican division,00:07:02
raised on the same books, movies, songs and cartoons,00:07:07
through and through Soviet people who studied
in the Soviet way at school and institute,00:07:12
with Soviet ideas about the world, their
role in it, about work, about wages,00:07:16
about the duties of the state, and about the relationship of society with it.00:07:20
In none of the three republics, by the end of Soviet power,
there were people left who would remember some other life,00:07:25
some other social and political tradition besides the Soviet one.00:07:29
But our three countries, which started from one point,
went on three completely different roads.00:07:35
They built completely different political regimes.00:07:38
Belarus is a classic populist autocracy
of a completely Latin American type.00:07:44
Russia is a hybrid information structure.00:07:47
Ukraine is the only one of the three countries that, with all the problems
and imperfections, has managed to remain a competitive democracy.00:07:55
Today we will talk about Ukraine and Russian-Ukrainian relations.00:08:00
I want to make an important remark right away.00:08:02
Last but not least, I would like to look like some
kind of mentor who will tell the neighboring country how to live and develop.00:08:09
I am a Russian politician, and my story
is primarily intended for Russian viewers.00:08:14
In this video, I want to present a political panorama of Ukraine
and talk about the relations between our two countries for the Russian audience,00:08:22
to make it more clear to you what kind of country it is.00:08:45
A story about any country traditionally begins with its history.00:08:49
But, in relation to our topic, the history of the emergence
of Ukraine as a state is completely unimportant.00:08:56
Although this is a favorite topic of both Russian
propaganda and some Ukrainian politicians. 00:09:01
It is convenient to speculate on it.00:09:03
The first say: "Ukraine never existed as an independent state,00:09:09
the Bolsheviks cut it from the original Russian lands."00:09:12
From which, as it were, it follows that this historical
oversight needs to be corrected instantly,00:09:16
returning a piece of the once great empire to its native harbor.00:09:20
The latter are building a national identity,
looking for origins in ancient Ukrainian history.00:09:25
Someone keeps her report from the post-revolutionary republic,
someone even from the depths of centuries.00:09:30
Both representations are debatable,
to put it mildly, especially the first one.00:09:34
But we will not discuss this, because the main thing is not in this.00:09:39
The main thing is that it doesn't matter.00:09:41
There is no such state that existed
as an independent from time immemorial.00:09:47
All modern states are the result of wars, truces, compromises, bargaining,00:09:52
bureaucratic mistakes, dynastic marriages,
bloody civil strife, revolutions, deceit,00:09:58
and even a simple language barrier, when people thought they
were agreeing on one thing, but in fact it turned out quite differently.00:10:05
And half the world is completely lined with a ruler.00:10:08
Simply because it was more convenient
for the colonial administration in London.00:10:13
No piece of land was always someone’s.00:10:16
No one was originally part of any composition.00:10:19
Every square meter in Eurasia for thousands of years
of the turbulent history of this continent00:10:23
changed countless owners: leaders, princes, dukes,
counts, kings, khans, kings and emperors.00:10:30
If we rise to some level of historical generalization,00:10:33
then approximately the entire current European Union
is the separatist provinces of the Roman Empire.00:10:39
The state is not brandy in an oak barrel: it does not get better with age.00:10:43
As well as historical belonging to some territory, to some other territory00:10:48
does not give anyone any property rights and no rights at all.00:10:53
All post-Soviet republics are the same age, we are all 30 years old.00:10:57
You can tell yourself historical tales as much as you like,
even about the Russian Empire, even about Kievan Rus.00:11:03
But the Soviet government broke off all continuity.00:11:06
We are all in the same conditions:00:11:08
young states bearing the heavy social burden
of post-totalitarian societies.00:11:14
The Krajina never existed, the Russian Federation never existed,00:11:18
Belarus has never existed, Kazakhstan has never existed.00:11:23
All these are states created for the age of people who are not at all old now. 00:11:27
In front of my eyes.00:11:28
And the fact that within the borders of one of them is the territory
that was once the center of the empire,00:11:33
does not provide any benefits.00:11:35
On the territory of present-day Spain is the center
of the empire, which once owned half the world.00:11:40
The language of this empire is still native to almost half
a billion people in three dozen countries.00:11:46
But this does not give Spain any advantage, any power over, say, Mexico.00:12:01
Let's start with what Ukraine has and how it compares
favorably with its CIS neighbors.00:12:07
In Ukraine, indeed, there is a competitive policy.00:12:11
Competitive policy with all its shortcomings:00:12:14
inadequate influence of oligarchic groups,00:12:17
controversial, in terms of representing the interests
of a spectrum of parliamentary parties,00:12:21
with a huge role of populist politicians,00:12:24
with all the problems of young democracies.00:12:26
However, we are talking about fair, regular,
multi-level, competitive elections,00:12:32
as a result of which, indeed, political power is changing.00:12:36
Yes, there are nuances:00:12:38
large financial and industrial groups that have a huge
influence on politics and politicians do not change in elections,00:12:44
and quite successfully defend their interests,
including corrupt ones, under any administration.00:12:50
Understanding this, one should not overestimate
the influence of the oligarchy.00:12:54
As well as underestimating the importance of elected politicians.00:12:57
Finance is an important resource, of course.00:12:59
But political power, the formation of legislation and
its enforcement, is a much more significant asset.00:13:05
Namely, it is played out in competitive elections.00:13:08
Ukraine, at all costs, with all the weakness of institutions,
was able to maintain a competitive policy.00:13:14
No authoritarian project, characteristic of many young
and unstable democracies, could take place in it.00:13:20
There was no merging of power and property, as in Russia and Belarus.00:13:27
Friends, who remembers the last time
you went to the store to choose equipment?00:13:31
It's hard for me to remember.00:13:33
Almost everything is now easier to buy
with delivery, even groceries and clothes.00:13:37
And just 10 years ago, most people most likely used AliExpress mainly.00:13:42
People waited weeks for orders, and then stood behind
them in a huge queue at the post office.00:13:48
Since last year, orders from AliExpress can be received by courier.00:13:52
And in the post offices there are separate stands.00:13:55
Some of the goods are now sold from warehouses in Russia.00:13:57
And you can get them in less than 10 days.00:14:00
For example, this quadcopter is promised to be delivered in 6 days.00:14:03
And the price for it is already lower than in some Russian stores.00:14:07
But you can save even more with the Megabonus cashback service.00:14:11
The service returns up to 6.5% of all purchases on AliExpress.00:14:16
And in February, you can get up to 8.7% additional cashback here00:14:21
from all purchases in Russian stores on AliExpress.00:14:25
For purchases in the main stores of the marketplace,
an additional cashback of up to 2.7%.00:14:30
In addition to AliExpress, Megabonus
gives increased cashback in other stores.00:14:35
In some it rises 5 times.00:14:38
So you can return from purchases up to 40% of the cost.00:14:41
Stores change periodically, for example, now for one purchase
with AliExpress, you can increase the cashback to 25.8%.00:14:48
But by the time the video is released, the stores may change, so check.00:14:51
To return money from purchases, you need to register
on the site and activate the increased cashback.00:14:57
Choose shops on the main page, there are more than 3 thousand of them.00:15:01
And you can withdraw money in a convenient way for you,
for example, to a card or replenish your phone balance.00:15:06
If you don't want to miss out on the increased cashback,00:15:08
follow the link in the description or scan the QR code you see right now.00:15:16
To understand the situation in Ukraine, you and I need to
discuss the economic situation in the country.00:15:22
We need to answer the question:00:15:24
"How did it happen that the social and political structure
of Ukraine is much more advanced than ours,00:15:30
however, we are ahead of Ukraine economically?"00:15:34
In general, this is an important example of the fact that institutions
of change of power alone are not enough for economic growth.00:15:41
I want to remind you once again: this video is for the Russians,00:15:44
I am not telling Ukrainians here how to live.00:15:47
We are discussing the economic issue on the example
of another country very similar to us,00:15:52
which, however, has evolved differently in the last 30 years.00:15:56
In this discussion, we are not yet touching on an important
issue with economic growth in recent years -00:16:00
military operations in the Donbass and the loss of territories,
we will talk about this later.00:16:05
But in 2014, before these events began, the situation
was no better than now, in terms of the economy.00:16:11
It has much deeper causes.00:16:24
The first question that I want to discuss in this video
and which I want to try to answer is:00:16:29
"How did it happen that Ukraine, a country that started
with Russia from the same point in 1991,00:16:36
at the same time, a country that did not fall into the trap
of authoritarianism and retained a competitive democracy,00:16:41
so, how did it happen that Ukraine was not able to achieve
the same economic development and wealth of its inhabitants as in Russia?00:16:47
If we compare the main economic indicator - GDP per capita,00:16:51
then we will see that, having started in 1991 at very low values,
we moved more or less together until 1999.00:16:59
But then Russia began to grow sharply,
but Ukraine did not begin to grow.00:17:04
Why did it happen?00:17:06
The answer is that market reforms have not been carried out in Ukraine.00:17:09
The economy, in fact, has not yet been rebuilt
from the Soviet one to the market one.00:17:15
It sounds strange.00:17:16
But with all the demand for movement towards the West,
Ukraine today is a much less Western country00:17:21
in terms of the structure of their economy than Russia.00:17:24
It is impossible not to make a reservation about the jump in oil prices.00:17:27
Russia, being a petrocracy, benefited from this leap.00:17:30
But it was the market reforms that helped keep all growth
from being lost when abnormal prices returned to normal.00:17:35
If you don't like Russia, you can also look
at the examples of Estonia and Poland.00:17:40
There is no oil there.00:17:42
Poland started from the same point as Ukraine,
Estonia from the same point as Russia.00:17:47
But in both countries, the population is now much
richer than the inhabitants of Ukraine.00:17:53
We in Russia are lucky in this sense.00:17:55
We broke out of our poverty trap thanks to market reforms,00:17:59
which Yegor Gaidar managed to hold in the 90s,
and especially Mikhail Kasyanov in the early 2000s.00:18:04
We now have the middle income trap.00:18:07
But this is a completely different story, we will not dive into it now.00:18:10
In Ukraine, reforms similar to Kasyanov's have not yet taken place.00:18:15
The average salary in Ukraine in June 2021
is just over UAH 14,000, or about $500.00:18:22
This is one and a half hundred dollars
below the minimum wage in Estonia.00:18:27
This is 1.5 times lower than the average salary in Russia.00:18:30
This is the same 1.5 times more
than the average salary in Transnistria,00:18:34
a completely virtual from a legal point of view
and not recognized by anyone state.00:18:39
Ukraine simply does not have the right, being where it is,
to demonstrate such monstrous performance.00:18:44
In countries comparable to it in per capita GDP,
a significant proportion of the population cannot read and write.00:18:51
Yes, since 2014, understandable circumstances
for stagnation have appeared:00:18:55
loss of territories, war, rupture of economic ties with Russia,
which used to be the largest external trading partner.00:19:01
But this effect in the context of economics is often presented
as a universal answer in discussions - and this is very debatable.00:19:08
After a short period of economic growth in the 2000s,
Ukraine's per capita GDP has not grown since 2009.00:19:15
What loss of territories, ties, what kind of war was in 2010?00:19:20
2011? 2012? What were the barriers to reform?00:19:25
Why Ukraine could not reach the level of at least Serbia?00:19:30
However, it is a poor role model.00:19:32
The country has recently suffered a massive
civil war and a real foreign expansion.00:19:36
One of the poorest countries in Europe,
and they are twice as rich as Ukraine.00:19:48
The problem here is not individual events.00:19:50
Ukraine before the Euromaidan of 13-14 is a reference
example of an institutional trap.00:19:57
On the one hand, this is a country that has literally everything:00:20:01
a large and educated population, a very high level of human
capital, incomparable in countries of similar GDP per capita,00:20:10
good transit location - in the center of Europe,
and even with access to the Black Sea,00:20:16
mild climate, fertile lands, endless potential
for the development of almost any industry,00:20:22
from high-tech industry to tourism.00:20:25
The current economic situation in Ukraine
is simply humiliating for it.00:20:29
Such an educated country,00:20:35
in the center of Europe - it has no right to be inferior
in terms of GDP per capita to Iraq!00:20:39
You can't live with an average salary
like the minimum wage in Romania.00:20:43
And pretend that it is okay.00:20:46
To put it very simply, Ukraine is too smart a country to be so poor.00:20:51
For a quarter of a century of independence, Ukraine
dragged on its feet Soviet institutions,00:20:58
completely unsuitable for market relations.00:21:02
This constantly hindered economic growth.00:21:05
It destroyed fundamental advantages.00:21:08
Even today, after almost 8 years since the victory
of the Maidan, after some weak and inconsistent reforms,00:21:16
privatization share of government spending in Ukraine's GDP is 47%.00:21:22
This is an extreme level!00:21:24
This is the share of government spending at the level of the richest countries
in Western Europe, slightly below Sweden and Canada - 53% each.00:21:31
At the level of Luxembourg and the Netherlands, a quarter higher
than Russia, and, which is completely unthinkable, a quarter higher than Belarus!00:21:38
Simply put, Ukraine redistributes through state revenues
such a share of the gross domestic product,00:21:43
which only the richest and most developed states with
the highest level of institutional trust can have.00:21:50
The Ukrainian state deals with everything.00:21:53
And this is not only infrastructure companies
and natural monopolies, like NaftoGaz,00:21:58
Ukrainian railways, electricity generation and networks,
as well as on the eastern side of the border in the hands of the states.00:22:04
Ukraine is engaged in agriculture, growing and harvesting grain,00:22:10
this, by the way, is one of the first industries that the Russian
government got rid of in the early 2000s.00:22:16
As it is not difficult to guess, the production of bread
by the state entails continuous corruption scandals.00:22:21
We can recall the scandal with the SJSC "Bread of Ukraine",00:22:24
in which each change of leadership showed
some transcendent amount of theft.00:22:29
Extraction and sale of salt, breeding of horses,
chemical industry, mining,00:22:35
printing services - it's easier to say that
the Ukrainian government does not provide.00:22:40
It seems that it does not organize a karting club, for example.00:22:43
From a citizen's point of view, a state-owned enterprise
is the worst form of ownership.00:22:48
Strictly speaking, the state, that is, all citizens -
and so the shareholders of any private company.00:22:54
Well, simply because any private company is obliged
to pay taxes to the state, give part of the profits and submit reports.00:23:01
The state, that is, citizens through the state,
control the activities of any company through reporting.00:23:07
And from the taxes collected, the state pays pensions, builds roads,
equips the army and does all the other things that are characteristic of the state.00:23:14
Moreover, when it comes to a private company,
all citizens are preferred shareholders.00:23:19
They get paid anyway, even if the company has no profit.00:23:23
It still has to pay a ton of taxes and fees,
at least the employee payroll tax.00:23:28
And if something goes wrong, for example, the company
goes bankrupt, management makes bad decisions,00:23:33
then these are only the problems of the company itself,
the taxpayer will not be affected,00:23:37
they will not need, well, except for the rarest exceptions,
to invest huge funds anywhere,00:23:42
to save a losing company so that it continues to exist.00:23:46
It turns out that a private company is all the pluses
of a shareholder for a citizen, but without the minuses.00:23:51
It is quite another case with state-owned companies.00:23:54
By birthright you are made a shareholder,
without rights, but with duties.00:24:00
If a state-owned company that produces, for example, bread,
or food for horses - which state-owned companies do not do only in Ukraine,00:24:08
so, if such a state-owned company starts generating losses,
what will happen to it for sure,00:24:13
then these losses are compensated out of your pocket.00:24:16
You will pay for every market fluctuation, for every mistake
or theft of thieving state managers,00:24:23
simply because you are a small part of a huge owner.00:24:27
At the same time, you do not even have
those minimal rights that anyone gets,00:24:31
who bought at least one share of General Motors in a bank offer.00:24:35
You cannot request reporting, you cannot come
to the general meeting of shareholders,00:24:40
Nobody owes you anything, you always owe it.00:24:43
That is why the illusion of reliable controlled state property
always works in the opposite direction.00:24:49
As soon as the enterprise becomes state-owned,
you, as a citizen, lose all the benefits from owning it,00:24:55
which you had, but now you are gaining all the costs.00:25:00
The profit of such an enterprise is never yours,
but the losses are always yours.00:25:05
Management does not have to report to you.00:25:08
But their mistakes are your problem.00:25:11
Imagine that someone rents out your apartment.00:25:13
The realtor receives all the profit from the rent,
but you will have to repair the housing, if anything happens.00:25:19
Is this a fair distribution of profits, what do you think?00:25:22
And so it is with a state-owned enterprise.00:25:25
The nature of private business is very different from that of the state.00:25:29
Private business is enriched with profit, it is interested in growth,
efficiency and cost reduction.00:25:35
the accumulation of inefficiency, the growth of
costs in a competitive environment,00:25:39
will mean ruin for private business and
withdrawal from the market.00:25:42
Another private business will come to this place
and everything will be fine.00:25:47
For a state manager-official, profit does not matter.00:25:51
They earn from turnover.00:25:53
A drop in efficiency, an increase in costs for them
is not a problem, on the contrary, it is good.00:25:58
After all, you can put your friends and relatives
in meaningless administrative positions at the plant,00:26:03
give meaningless services to neded contractors,00:26:07
to buy raw materials not at the best price, but from oneself
through a chain of shell companies.00:26:12
Benefits only!00:26:13
And all this will lead not to ruining and leaving the market,
but to an increase in subsidies from the owner - from you.00:26:19
Well, from the state.00:26:21
It turns out a completely paradoxical situation:
the more unprofitable you are, the more money they give you.00:26:27
So you are directly interested in drawing losses,
even where there are none.00:26:31
And not at all interested in making the enterprise profitable.00:26:34
Terribly unprofitable enterprises that will not miss
the opportunity to tell citizens about their strategic importance,00:26:40
but in a completely distressed situation, they can
fabulously enrich their management.00:26:44
Well, managers, firstly, will do everything possible
so that state-owned enterprises never fall into private hands,00:26:50
because then incomes past the payroll will disappear,00:26:54
and the appointees themselves will evaporate from managerial posts.00:26:57
Secondly, state managers have a huge financial resource in their hands,00:27:01
and it will undoubtedly be directed to lobbying
and propaganda so that privatization never happens.00:27:07
In the margins, we note that the state-businessman
is generally not the norm in any approximation.00:27:12
The state is, by definition, an arbitrator in the market.00:27:14
It must set the rules and enforce them.00:27:18
It is absolutely not normal when the referee
becomes the captain of one of the teams.00:27:21
This creates a severe conflict of interest.00:27:24
So officials-managers are interested in writing such
rules according to which they always win.00:27:29
Rules that harm everyone else.00:27:31
This is what happens in Russia, which has gone
through a path of rapid nationalization over the past 15 years.00:27:37
This is also happening in Ukraine,
where privatization has not really begun.00:27:42
I didn't start with agriculture just like that.00:27:44
Historically, since the time of Soviet power,
agriculture in our latitudes has been00:27:48
a depressed, widely unprofitable subsidized industry.00:27:52
Historically, if one was appointed as an agriculture minister,
it was an obvious way to permanently end the career of a big official.00:27:58
From the ministers of agriculture people do not come back.00:28:01
At the beginning of the 2000s, the situation in Russia
was exactly the same as it is today in Ukraine.00:28:05
The state agricultural sector, if it didn’t end, if the harvesters
did not rust in the fields, then it was definitely plundered.00:28:13
It seemed to be an invincible problem.00:28:15
Our mentality is like this: the villages are full of drunks,
we would rather import from Canada.00:28:21
Literally 4 years after the adoption of the new land code,00:28:25
privatization of both land and enterprises, Russia became a grain exporter.00:28:30
And a little later, the largest exporter of wheat in the world.00:28:44
There was no white and legal land market in Ukraine.00:28:48
Which spawned a flourishing black market.00:28:50
Officials from the municipal to the ministerial level throughout
the entire period of independence of the country were monstrously enriched00:28:57
on corrupt redistribution of land plots.00:29:00
The absence of a land market gave rise to a whole estate
of very rich and extremely influential people,00:29:07
vitally interested in this market never appearing.00:29:11
And they continued to control everything as it is,
and enrich themselves on this.00:29:14
They have in their hands a huge resource, both for lobbying
and for direct sabotage of land reform.00:29:20
For propaganda in the largest Ukrainian media.00:29:24
These same media have been frightening citizens
for years with fables about the monstrous prospects for land privatization,00:29:31
one part of society was told that Putin would come from
the east and buy up all the land and take away sovereignty,00:29:36
the other part was told about the plans of the Americans
to bury nuclear waste on privatized lands.00:29:42
They were ready to say anything as long as the reform does not pass.00:29:47
Regulation of land relations is a basic function of the state.00:29:51
It arose not only with the first civilizations, it is the same age
as the very phenomenon of power.00:29:57
If a state lacks such a basic regulation, such an obvious institution,00:30:03
economic growth is immediately removed from the agenda.00:30:06
It's just another era of human development.00:30:10
Even the recently adopted law on land privatization has a lot of restrictions.00:30:15
Well, for example, only citizens of Ukraine can buy land,
which makes the land market not really a market anymore.00:30:20
All this endless fuss with land regulation is very indicative
in general, but this is only a special case.00:30:27
Looking at any broken institution holding back economic growth,00:30:31
we will immediately see specific interests in order for it to be
exactly in such a broken form and remain indefinitely.00:30:50
There is one answer to the vast majority of questions
about the current economic situation in Ukraine:00:30:55
systematic corruption.00:30:57
The activities of corruption are expressed in numbers.00:31:01
Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe in terms of GDP per capita.00:31:05
And at the same time, Ukraine is the richest
country in Europe - and this is even more dangerous.00:31:09
That is, Ukraine is rich in resources,
including finance, natural resources,00:31:14
but 7 oligarchs concentrate the resource in their hands,
they hold this poor Ukraine in their hands,00:31:20
and as a result, we have Ukraine - the world record holder
for non-growth of GDP per capita.00:31:28
And this is the only country in Europe that is at the level
of sub-Saharan Africa in terms of GDP - this is a disaster.00:31:34
Corruption that governs government mechanisms
and influences decision-making.00:31:39
Over-regulation, high and utterly confusing taxes,00:31:44
dependent judiciary, low competition, monopolization -00:31:49
all this is actually beneficial for very specific people.00:31:52
And these people will make every effort and use all their resources and opportunities to maintain the status quo that enriches them.00:32:01
If the state does not sell the plant, this does not mean
that there is some fundamental and very complex reason not to sell it.00:32:08
It only means that someone is very successfully
cashing in on state property.00:32:13
And this someone will do everything possible,
tell everyone about the strategic role, defense capability and national security,00:32:21
just not to sell the plant and not lose the source of income.00:32:24
The problem of corruption is not at all in someone's unjust enrichment.00:32:29
If it all came down to the construction of flashy vulgar palaces,
then we wouldn’t care so much.00:32:34
But corruption always parasitizes on the vices of the state.00:32:38
The corrupt official sells the solution to the problem that it itself creates.00:32:43
If you can, for example, get a passport in two clicks,
then there is no room for corruption.00:32:49
But if to obtain it you need to collect tons of documents, permits,00:32:53
that opens up a lot of opportunities for receiving bribes. 00:32:57
And it is completely unprofitable for officials to simplify
the procedure for issuing a passport.00:33:01
Or a building permit, which is much more significant.00:33:05
Corruption breeds corruption.00:33:07
The more money the corrupt people make, well,
the ones who cash in on passports or building permits,00:33:13
the more resources they have to delay and
not allow these problems to be resolved.00:33:21
Behind all this is the personal enrichment of quite specific officials.00:33:26
The enrichment is gigantic in application to each specific person.00:33:29
But on an economic scale, it's worthless.00:33:33
And this penny enrichment costs the country not millions, not billions,00:33:37
it costs percents of GDP!00:33:39
It costs future, lost years of development.00:33:43
Just because someone has stolen quite a bit of government money.00:33:47
The problem of corruption is not solved by the simple method
that seems obvious to everyone - arrests and repressions.00:33:53
The problem of corruption is solved by the same method
as the elimination of all its negative consequences:00:33:58
repairing those vices of the state on which it parasitizes.00:34:03
Ukraine desperately needs tax reform,00:34:06
in terms of the total burden on the economy,
which reaches 50%, it overtakes all countries in the regions.00:34:13
A high tax burden hinders business development.00:34:16
It limits household consumption.00:34:19
This is obvious: the more the state demands from you,
the less you can spend on investment and consumption.00:34:28
Is it always bad? Not always.00:34:31
If you are a very developed and wealthy state, you can say:00:34:34
"We want a very high level of public goods,
free quality education, healthcare,00:34:39
high unemployment and childcare benefits,
we want everyone,00:34:44
regardless of the level of wealth, to be comfortable
in our country, and we are ready to pay for it."00:34:50
Yes, you have to pay half your big salary for taxes.00:34:54
But if I lose this salary, if my factory is closed,
if I get seriously ill,00:35:00
the state, to which I paid a lot of money,
will take care of me and my family.00:35:04
I will not starve to death and maintain
a fairly good level of consumption.00:35:08
Whatever happens to me, state institutions will support me.00:35:11
In addition, these institutions themselves are transparent and controlled.00:35:15
High taxes, a high share of state participation in the economy
is not bad in itself and not good.00:35:21
But it requires two conditions.00:35:23
A very rich country - well, just
so that there is something to take from!00:35:27
To be able to sacrifice economic
growth in the name of the public welfare.00:35:33
And very high institutional trust.00:35:36
So that citizens know exactly where their taxes go.00:35:38
Otherwise, you will get nothing but stagnation
and massive tax avoidance.00:35:44
In Ukraine, there is neither one nor the other.00:35:47
Ukraine is a very poor and very corrupt country.00:35:50
It simply cannot afford to neglect economic growth.00:35:54
And trust in institutions will not soon grow
enough for everyone to understand00:35:59
where their money go and agree with this distribution.00:36:02
You can pay a lot for institutions when they are good and unstable,00:36:05
when you can trade the speed of growth
in exchange for its sustainability.00:36:09
But remove the speed from the comparison -
and everything will break.00:36:15
Ukraine's problem is not only high taxes.00:36:17
And they are high, according to Price Waterhouse Coopers,
one of the highest in the region.00:36:22
But the problem is also their outstanding variety
and terrible administrative costs.00:36:27
One of the first reforms was proposed back in 2014
by the father of the Georgian economic miracle, Kakha Bendukidze.00:36:33
This is the rejection of extra-budgetary funds, social tax,
and the transition to a universal budget and a single tax on the income of individuals.00:36:42
This reform would solve many problems at once.00:36:45
It would dramatically simplify the calculation
of taxes for employers. 00:36:48
A single rate is more convenient than a whole
bunch of contributions with tricky odds.00:36:52
The reform would reduce the overall tax burden on wages.00:36:56
The reform would destroy the completely unnecessary
senseless spacer between the budget, citizens and companies -00:37:00
off-budget funds that produce only the costs of their own existence.00:37:04
For example, huge buildings, and all that stuff,
the managers who sit there.00:37:08
By the way, a direct ban, not only liquidation,
but a ban on the creation of off-budget funds 00:37:14
was one of the main reforms of Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgia.00:37:17
It is easier and cheaper for payers,
easier and cheaper for the state.00:37:20
Everyone benefits from it.00:37:22
However, after 7 years, we see something different.00:37:24
Payroll taxes in Ukraine now look like this: 18% of income tax is,
by the way, a third higher than in Russia,00:37:32
1.5% of the military levy and another 22%
from the wage fund is a single social tax.00:37:39
It turns out that the effective payroll tax rate in Ukraine today is 34%.00:37:42
That is, if the employee’s contract says 100 UAH, then
he receives 76.5 UAH in his hands, and the employer will give 122 UAH.00:37:49
Well, that is, they will give 122 UAH, you will receive 76.5 UAH.00:37:53
This is one, but quite a significant example of how one
reform can make the life of the vast majority of citizens,00:37:59
both workers and employers, much simpler and richer.00:38:02
Ukraine is the only republic
of the former Soviet Union, except for Russia,00:38:06
where a truly developed domestic market can exist, it is quite large.00:38:11
In particular, there may be an internal market for high technologies.00:38:15
40 million people is a population, about the same as in Spain.00:38:18
If the country were at least at the level of average incomes,
at least the same $10 thousand per capita, as in Russia,00:38:25
it would surpass Argentina in total GDP00:38:28
and would stand on a par with Israel.00:38:30
It would be among the top 30 economies in the world.00:38:33
But we see some absolutely amazing institutional failure.00:38:37
Ukraine developed as a competitive
democracy from the very beginning.00:38:40
But it was able to drag through all these
years completely non-market institutions,00:38:45
inherited from the Soviet regime and its planned economy.00:38:49
Even those basic reforms were not carried out00:38:52
which without much difficulty were done by the first government
of Vladimir Putin, under the leadership of Mikhail Kasyanov.00:38:59
When you look at Kasyanov's reforms now, after the fact,
these are so obvious things that it's just embarrassing to list them.00:39:06
This is a new tax code and a simplified taxation
system for small businesses,00:39:11
thanks to which it became convenient to pay taxes and work
in the legal field became a reality.00:39:18
This is a customs reform that eliminated
the all-consuming corrupt smuggling.00:39:23
This is the land code that has created a real land market.00:39:28
This is a simplification of legislation, a reduction
in the regulation of administrative costs.00:39:32
As a result, the burden of corruption is reduced.00:39:36
One of the most revealing indicators, a kind of international canary,00:39:40
by which you can understand whether everything
is in order with your state, is IKEA.00:39:44
A Swedish company known for its zero tolerance for corruption.00:39:48
Simply put, it does not pay bribes to officials
in the countries where it operates.00:39:52
IKEA, at all costs, despite the fact that sometimes
it took years to open stores, like in Samara,00:39:57
has been working in Russia since 2000, for more than 20 years.00:40:01
Yes, the company has long curtailed investment activity,
it got bored with the fight against Russian corruption,00:40:07
but, nevertheless, IKEA in Russia is already a traditional
part of the lifestyle of the largest cities.00:40:11
IKEA has never been in Ukraine.00:40:14
The company decided to enter this market only in 2019
and opened its first store only in 2021.00:40:21
This is a good metric to compare two neighboring
countries with very high corruption.00:40:26
Russian corruption of the 2000s was still acceptable,
the company was ready to fight it on the field of law.00:40:32
Ukrainian corruption and Ukrainian legislation, Ukrainian taxes
and customs were unacceptable for IKEA until 2019.00:40:41
And what is the absence of IKEA in the country?00:40:44
This means that new jobs are not being created,
this means that price competition for the consumer is not growing,00:40:51
there is no offer of furniture and furniture
is more expensive because of this,00:40:55
this means that one of the largest states in Europe
was so unsuitable for business,00:41:01
that even such a giant as IKEA with all its political
lobbying, including international ones,00:41:06
for a long time did not want to deal with this state.00:41:10
The problem with the Ukrainian economy
is not that it needs some kind of magic wand,00:41:14
some incredible reforms, the main
problem and the most offensive is that00:41:20
everything is just very clear, all the reforms that should be
carried out have already been carried out by all the others,00:41:26
not only developed democracies, but even Russia.00:41:30
Ukraine is at the stage of development at which it is now,
that is, in the state of a poor country,00:41:36
to become a middle-income country00:41:39
it does not need some very complex political
reform or the building of advanced institutions.00:41:44
It won't take a decade!00:41:46
These are the most basic steps00:41:48
which, as we know from the example of Russia and
the Kasyanov government, will have an immediate effect.00:41:53
Immediately, within the first few years.00:41:55
Unlike Russia, Ukraine is at the stage of development
when very simple recipes work.00:42:01
When the economy does not need to be helped,
you just need to interfere with it a little less.00:42:06
All countries that were at the level of development
of today's Ukraine grew in exactly the same way.00:42:12
They brought their legislation and law
enforcement to the minimum level00:42:17
where investment is already possible,
and then everything happened by itself.00:42:22
Because investors rushed to cheap skilled labor and assets00:42:27
where rapid growth is inevitable, investment creates jobs,00:42:32
jobs drive income growth, income growth pushes domestic demand,00:42:36
the growth of domestic demand attracts new investment
to meet its needs, and so on in a circle.00:42:42
Having all this, Ukraine also has the award
of the country of catch-up development.00:42:47
This is both undervalued workforce and assets,
the possibility of rapid growth00:42:54
through technology and domestic consumption.00:42:56
The current underdevelopment, a qualified engineer
is willing to work cheaper than a Chinese worker -00:43:02
is an advantage that any investor will want to use.00:43:05
Exactly at the moment when at least some
vague reforms will begin in Ukraine. 00:43:11
On that positive note, let's move on to the next section.00:43:30
We talked about the state of affairs
with the economy in Ukraine today.00:43:34
In 2014, the situation was about the same.00:43:38
But in 2014, a political event occurred that dramatically
changed the situation in the country.00:43:45
These events are called the "revolution of dignity" here.00:43:48
And not a single video that conscientiously describes
the situation in Ukraine can do without a detailed story about those events.00:43:56
We'll tell you too.00:44:11
Maidan, as Ukrainians say, comes alive when
the country is on the verge of change.00:44:16
So it was in 1991 with student protests.00:44:20
Those events were called "Revolution on Granite".00:44:23
So it was in 2004 during the Orange Revolution.00:44:26
And the last time it was in 2013.00:44:29
It was the Maidan with the prefix "Euro".00:44:31
These events took place here, on Independence Square in Kyiv.00:44:35
To understand the reasons for the Euromaidan,
one must immerse oneself in the Ukrainian context of that period.00:44:42
Viktor Yanukovych has been in power since 2010,00:44:46
who had a majority in parliament and a reputation
as a pro-Russian politician.00:44:50
But, despite this, officially the country continued
to move towards unification with the European Union,00:44:55
passing both the application and the relevant laws.00:45:00
A summit was scheduled for the end of November 2013 in Vilnius,00:45:04
where, as expected, Viktor Yanukovych was supposed
to sign an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.00:45:11
I will not dwell on what exactly this agreement gives,00:45:14
but it is important to understand that this is one of the first
steps on the country's path to EU membership.00:45:19
Around the same time, Russia was engaged
in the creation of its own trade association,00:45:24
called the "Customs Union".00:45:26
Ukraine was also invited there.00:45:28
Public opinion polls conducted during that period00:45:32
gave approximately equal allies of both the Customs Union
and the European Union, with a slight preponderance towards Europe.00:45:38
Therefore, the summer of 2013 in Ukraine was remembered
for the fact that the country was facing a fork,00:45:44
which has become a values’ choice: go west or go east.00:45:49
In such circumstances, Viktor Yanukovych decided to bargain,
begging for money and preferences from one country, then another.00:45:56
Russia used different arguments in this process: on the one hand,
they offered money, and on the other, they used a trade blockade.00:46:02
In the summer, all trade with Ukraine was completely blocked for 10 days.00:46:06
And the European Union, while making concessions, nevertheless
explained that it was impossible to be both there and there at the same time.00:46:11
So sooner or later the country had to choose.00:46:15
What decision will eventually be made became clear
on November 21, a week before the summit.00:46:21
The Ukrainian government announced that it was suspending
preparations for association with the European Union, citing the fact that00:46:28
the Ukrainian economy is not ready for this.00:46:32
An 180 degrees turn.00:46:36
We haven't received a clear signal.00:46:39
The government suspended the European integration
movement until better times.00:46:43
It was this event, the sudden stop of movement
towards Europe, that caused the Maidan.00:46:49
Not questions of the economy, not claims to power,
but the collapse of hopes became the main trigger,00:46:57
that started the Maidan events.00:47:00
There was already a demand for change in society in all spheres of life.00:47:04
Therefore, the rejection of European integration
was taken as a signal that there would be no changes.00:47:10
These hopes were especially noticeable among students,
whose support for joining Europe was especially high.00:47:17
And it was the students who made the loudest
noise in the early days of the protests.00:47:23
The first people come to Kyiv's main square,
Independence Square, at the call of Ukrainian journalist Mustafa Nayem.00:47:31
Who called on his Facebook to gather in the square in protest.00:47:37
First, several hundred people come out.00:47:39
In a few days their number rises to several thousand.00:47:42
And in large cities across the country, similar,
albeit less numerous rallies started.00:47:47
The main slogans of this period were: "Ukraine is Europe",
"Europe begins with you" and the like.00:47:55
But, most importantly, students from Kiev universities
en masse join the protest from the very beginning,00:48:01
arranging processions from the doors
of their educational institutions to the Maidan00:48:05
and to those universities where for some reason
students were not allowed to attend rallies.00:48:09
Despite the judicial ban on mass actions and demands
to vacate the square, people do not disperse.00:48:15
A few days later, a huge rally of 100,000 people is gathering in Kyiv demanding
that the president sign an agreement with the European Union.00:48:24
There is still hope for this.00:48:27
At the same time, the Maidan was not a homogeneous phenomenon.00:48:31
An unusual phenomenon was that students drove politicians from the square,00:48:36
believing that they only came to promote themselves.00:48:40
Therefore, for some time there were
as many as two Maidans:00:48:43
one main and numerous, and the other, a few hundred
meters away, political and smaller.00:48:53
Despite the fact that there has not been such
a mass protest in Ukraine for a long time,00:48:57
Yanukovych refused to sign an agreement with the European Union.00:49:01
By the evening of November 29,
it became clear that nothing had happened.00:49:05
Several hundred people stay overnight on the square.00:49:09
In general, demotivated and with talk that it's time to disperse.00:49:13
However, this day went down in history as a dramatic one00:49:17
and became a turning point in all subsequent events.00:49:20
At night, for some reason, the authorities decide
to brutally disperse those people who00:49:25
remained over there, on the stele behind me.00:49:29
Police officers run down the Institute street
and begin to beat those who are there.00:49:36
On the square, where mostly students gather,
all this begins to happen.00:49:40
The police severely beat and detain
those who stayed overnight.00:49:43
And those who try to escape continue
to be chased and beaten with batons.00:49:48
Who knows what would have happened if the authorities
had not decided that night to disperse the Maidan.00:49:53
But the story of Viktor Yanukovych is the story of a failed autocracy,00:49:57
who overthrew himself in an eminent manner.00:50:00
There were exactly zero real reasons for the use of excess
force, for dispersal of those who stayed overnight on the Maidan.00:50:08
The only motive that could push for this
is a demonstration of "state power",00:50:13
intentions in their stupidity to go to the end.00:50:17
The "butterfly effect", popularized by popular culture,
is in fact greatly exaggerated.00:50:22
As it is right, there are quite fundamental factors
behind the big changes, behind the tragic pages of world history.00:50:29
What local circumstances allowed them
to fulfill themselves are insignificant details.00:50:34
But the order to forcibly disperse the protesters,
a completely senseless demonstration of a tough hand -00:50:39
a reference example of the rarest historical phenomenon,00:50:42
when one single stupid action forever changed the fate
of not only one of the largest European countries,00:50:48
but the entire post-Soviet region.00:50:51
If we cancel the first shot at Sarajevo, World War I will still start.00:50:55
Any pretext is suitable for countries ready to fight.00:50:58
If we cancel the dispersal order,
the Heavenly Hundred will remain alive,00:51:02
passengers of flight MH17 will be alive, Yanukovych will
remain in his chair and go to the next elections,00:51:08
and Crimea will stay where it should be.00:51:10
Dissatisfaction with deception due to the use of violence
in an instant turned into hatred of the state.00:51:17
The government really did their best to provoke it.00:51:20
The day after the forceful dispersal of the Maidan, footage of the beating
of protesters appears in the morning on all television channels in the country.00:51:28
The protest is reborn with renewed vigor, covering
not only students, but all segments of the population.00:51:35
Demands are radicalized, now on a par with "Ukraine is Europe!"
there is a slogan "Gang, go away!"00:51:40
The struggle goes beyond supporting the European course.00:51:44
Now this is a protest against the arbitrariness
of law enforcement agencies,00:51:47
against corruption, for parliamentary re-elections,
against Yanukovych and the system he built.00:51:55
Around this time, our country is determined
with its position on what is happening.00:52:00
Propaganda machine starts up, protesters get blamed00:52:04
that they are working off NATO money, other cliches are used,
well known, but far from reality.00:52:13
How blue European commissioners failed to seize Ukraine.00:52:16
Our plans don't change.00:52:18
And why Vilnius did not become a new Munich for Europe.00:52:23
Mass riots in Kyiv.00:52:26
The mayor's office has been taken over.00:52:28
The Ukrainian government does not hesitate
to scare residents with nationalists,00:52:32
and will do this for all subsequent months, adding intensity
to the passions, especially in the southeast.00:52:38
Already on December 1, up to half
a million people take to the streets.00:52:41
And some of the following days and more.00:52:43
The next day, an act of violence incomprehensible
to anyone takes place near the presidential administration building.00:52:49
Where law enforcement officers first suffered, and then journalists.00:52:52
Both of these events were condemned by the protesters.00:52:54
But in the future, relations on the Maidan acquire
an established, relatively peaceful character.00:53:00
From time to time, special forces try to push people off the streets,00:53:03
and people don’t give up and occupy more and more territory.00:53:06
The protesters remain in the squares in tents,
and with the onset of cold weather, without meeting resistance,00:53:12
occupy the Kiev administration and a couple of buildings in the center.00:53:15
The tent camp from the first days of the protest
lives at the expense of self-government.00:53:20
People constantly bring food, clothes, firewood.00:53:23
Every Sunday, a meeting is held on the Maidan
in the format of a national assembly,00:53:28
where people come from all over the country.00:53:30
The central square is not controlled by the police.00:53:33
And the authorities are organizing a parallel anti-Maidan
and are persecuting activists throughout the country.00:53:40
The New Year is approaching, and everyone freezes
in anticipation: what will happen next?00:53:56
The new confrontation will start on January 16,00:53:59
when the Ukrainian parliament immediately adopts
a bunch of laws aimed at narrowing the rights and freedoms of citizens.00:54:06
Since that day, everything has become tougher:00:54:08
freedom of assembly was restricted,
restrictions were imposed on the media,00:54:14
there was a ban on collecting information
about law enforcement officers and judges,00:54:18
they even introduced the term "foreign agent",
which is now used for repression in Russia.00:54:24
These laws were almost an exact copy of the repressive
laws then passed in our country.00:54:31
But in Ukraine, they caused a completely
different reaction of the society.00:54:36
People called the laws "dictatorial"
and simply did not comply with them,00:54:40
continuing to go to rallies, but now in even greater numbers. 00:54:44
Residents of Ukraine reacted immediately,
seeing in the adopted laws a desire to intimidate people00:54:50
and deploy repression.00:54:52
At the next national assembly on January 19,
the protesters decide to go to the parliament building,00:54:58
to express indignation at the new laws.00:55:01
However, the path is blocked by the police.00:55:03
Here, near the entrance to the Valery Lobanovsky
stadium, right at this place behind me,00:55:10
the confrontation suddenly develops into a real long clash.00:55:15
It was then that the protesters first began to throw paving
stones at the security forces and used Molotov cocktails,00:55:21
and they responded with water cannons,
rubber bullets and tear gas grenades.00:55:27
Buses blocking the road were burned,
but the protesters never came out to the parliament.00:55:33
The protest has lost its peaceful character.00:55:36
In the following days, the confrontation begins
to gain momentum, which leads to the first deaths.00:55:41
Protesters were shot dead: a Belarusian Mikhail Zhiznevsky
and a Ukrainian of Armenian origin Sergei Nigoyan.00:55:49
Two more are wounded and will die in hospitals later.00:55:53
The increased degree of violence on the part of the state
leads to spontaneous mass protests in the regions.00:56:01
In a third of the regions, protesters seize administrations.00:56:04
And in others, there are protests near them.00:56:08
There were no mass protests only in Donetsk and Crimea.00:56:11
The authorities are trying to fight off the administrations
and disperse the protests, using the so-called titushki.00:56:17
Titushki is a collective term for these tough guys with an athletic look,00:56:22
whom the authorities secretly attracted
for forceful showdowns and provocations.00:56:27
Interestingly, the term, although collective,
has a very specific origin:00:56:32
from the name of the athlete Vadim Titushko,00:56:35
who participated in brawls with the opposition during rallies in Kyiv.00:56:38
So the word we now call all such provocateurs was born here.00:56:43
Neither after the tough laws passed,
nor after the clashes and the first deaths,00:56:48
those gathered on the Maidan did not retreat.00:56:51
Each subsequent cruelty on the part of the authorities00:56:55
only increased the degree of bitterness and little
by little transformed the mood of the protesters,00:57:01
who yesterday were ready only for a peaceful protest,
but not for a confrontation with law enforcement officers.00:57:09
Later, the exacerbation is replaced
by an imaginary lull, it lasts about a month.00:57:14
And closer to mid-February, the final and most dramatic events come.00:57:21
By this time, it becomes clear that parliamentary
re-elections alone are not enough.00:57:26
The protesters demand a change of power and
go with these demands to parliament.00:57:32
The authorities decide to hold on to the last
and not make any concessions.00:57:37
In the entire government quarter of Kyiv, real street battles begin.00:57:42
The police and the titushki are advancing,
using light-noise grenades and rubber bullets.00:57:47
Barricades are being built on every street.00:57:50
Some protesters throw at the police everything that comes to hand,00:57:54
others carry away the wounded and bring paving stones.00:57:57
Journalists film it all.00:58:00
So the whole world is following the events in Kyiv.00:58:03
Against this background, opposition politicians are trying
to negotiate with Yanukovych, with the mediation of Europe and Russia.00:58:10
However, events are developing too fast.00:58:13
And people are no longer ready to tolerate Yanukovych in any form.00:58:17
Now clashes with the police take place already all over Kiev.00:58:21
For the first time in history, the metro stops in the city.00:58:24
The authorities are blocking the entrances to the capital,
but people from all over the country are coming here in droves anyway.00:58:31
Sounds scary? I think that's how it was.00:58:34
But even this is not the limit.00:58:36
In the end, the authorities even want to
involve the army in dispersing the protests.00:58:41
A special operation is announced, they are trying to clean
up the Maidan with the help of armored personnel carriers.00:58:46
Several cars even ram into the barricades, but the protesters fight back.00:58:50
The tragic outcome of two days of fighting is a mass
execution of protesters on February, 20.00:58:56
Right here.00:58:57
Directly on that day, 48 demonstrators
and 6 law enforcement officers die.00:59:02
This bloodshed could not be justified by any political motives.00:59:07
It was a shock to the whole of Ukraine.00:59:11
On the same day, Yanukovych's ruling coalition collapsed in parliament.00:59:16
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine immediately00:59:18
suspend blocking by law enforcement officers,00:59:22
transport communications, other streets, squares,
lanes, boulevards in the city of Kyiv00:59:27
and other settlements of Ukraine.00:59:29
To ensure the return of law enforcement officers00:59:33
to their permanent locations.00:59:42
A roll-call vote.00:59:48
Done!00:59:54
Deputies by majority vote adopt a resolution condemning violence00:59:59
and withdraw the security forces from Kyiv.01:00:02
The result of the three-month confrontation will be
more than a hundred dead and more than 2.5 thousand wounded.01:00:09
Parliament will take responsibility
for resolving the political conflict.01:00:13
And Yanukovych will first flee from Kyiv, and soon from the country.01:00:19
Later, the same parliament will deprive him of his powers,01:00:23
recognizing as self-withdrawn from the performance of duties.01:00:25
What was happening on the Maidan was not one event,
but a whole chain of episodes.01:00:30
Where some pulled others along on the principle of dominoes.01:00:33
This is the result of a long three-month standoff
and an ever-increasing civil response01:00:39
to the violence of the system and an attempt
to build authoritarianism in the country.01:00:44
In Ukraine, this struggle, which cost the country dearly,
will be called the "Revolution of Dignity."01:00:49
This revolution left a deep imprint in the collective memory of Ukrainians01:00:54
and has been determining the development of the country so far.01:01:28
All social strata of the population of Ukraine were
represented in the protests on the Maidan.01:01:33
But it is worth dwelling separately on the nationalists,01:01:36
who were also present there and about whom
our propaganda is very actively talking.01:01:41
However, recent events in Ukraine show that
nationalists and radicals feel at ease,01:01:46
they are masters of the situation and
do what they want with impunity.01:01:50
The nationalists frightened, at least at first,
with their actions and radical statements.01:01:56
They were presented as a political movement
in the form of the Svoboda party,01:02:00
and later formed on the Maidan itself by an association
of activists of Ukrainian ultra-right organizations,01:02:05
called "Right Sector".01:02:07
Subsequent events showed that the influence
of the nationalists was greatly overestimated.01:02:12
In the next elections after the Maidan, neither the Right Sector
nor Svoboda could get into parliament.01:02:17
"Right Sector" received only 1.8% of the vote,
and "Svoboda" 4.71% with a threshold of 5%.01:02:26
In 2014, one of the main scarecrows of Russian propaganda,
Dmitry Yarosh, took part in the presidential elections in Ukraine,01:02:33
he got 0.7% of the votes.01:02:37
Another nationalist, Oleg Tyagnibok, got 1.16%.01:02:43
At the next parliamentary elections, the nationalists
went to the polls as a single nationalist bloc,01:02:49
which included "Right Sector", "Svoboda", Tyagnibok,
and Yarosh - all of them.01:02:53
This unified nationalist bloc received
only 2.12% of the vote in the elections.01:03:01
The nationalists became such a scarecrow,
which was convenient to refer to and which was convenient to scare.01:03:08
But not by the movement that expresses the mood of the majority
or even a significant proportion of Ukrainian citizens.01:03:14
And not at all by a movement that would have
significant support in Ukrainian society.01:03:20
Such is the situation today.01:03:30
In itself, a sharp change of power for any country is a test.01:03:35
For Ukraine, this was only the beginning.01:03:38
In the very first days after the change of power,
the country faced a whole series of problems.01:03:43
First, the disappearance of the president
has created disorganization and a vacuum.01:03:49
Parliament remains the only supreme legitimate body. 01:03:53
To eliminate this problem, early presidential
elections were immediately announced.01:03:58
And the speaker of parliament and the commandant
of the Maidan Alexander Turchinov became acting in his capacity.01:04:05
All repressive laws were lifted, political
prisoners and protesters were released.01:04:11
The 2004 constitution was also brought back.01:04:14
Thus, Ukraine again became a parliamentary-presidential republic.01:04:18
And not presidential, as it was under Yanukovych.01:04:21
The European Union and the United States
welcomed the Parliament's decision01:04:25
to take responsibility for resolving the political crisis.01:04:28
But they wanted to speed up the presidential
election to eliminate the ambiguity.01:04:34
Alexander Lukashenko, then President of Belarus,01:04:37
although he condemned the change of power, he declared that
both the parliament and Acting President Turchynov were legitimate for him01:04:44
in conditions when Yanukovych fled.01:04:47
Russia, on the other hand, initially took the position
of non-recognition of the new government and called the incident a coup.01:04:54
Vladimir Putin even drew parallels with 1917.01:04:57
And he said that he considers Ukraine a new state
with which Russia has not signed any agreements.01:05:04
And, therefore, it has no obligations to it.01:05:08
That a new state is emerging on this territory.01:05:13
Just as it was after the collapse of the Russian Empire,
after the revolution of 1917,01:05:19
and we have nothing with this state, and we have
not signed any binding documents with respect to this state.01:05:28
This position says a lot.01:05:31
Our authorities like to talk about the re-establishment of the state.01:05:35
However, there were no grounds for speaking about Ukraine in this way.01:05:38
Against the backdrop of a deep crisis,
a legally elected parliament assumed power,01:05:42
who announced early elections to resolve the situation.01:05:46
A perfectly adequate course of action.01:05:48
But let’s go back to post-Maidan Ukraine.01:05:51
Together with Yanukovych, some top officials also fled to Russia.01:05:55
Minister of Defense, Prime Minister, Interior Minister and others.01:06:00
Attorney General.01:06:01
This created serious chaos.01:06:03
It will take months for the new government
to bring the country back under control.01:06:08
At the same time, the Russian
special operation began in the Crimea,01:06:11
which would later lead to his separation.01:06:14
And it also takes a lot of energy.01:06:17
But I will talk about this in detail later.01:06:19
Against the backdrop of a government crisis,
protests followed in the southeastern regions.01:06:23
They were caused both by the very fact of the change
of power, and the abolition of the law on regional languages,01:06:28
which made it possible to equate the Russian language
in certain areas with the state language.01:06:34
The decision to cancel in the end will not be signed.01:06:36
But this is more likely to provoke discontent.01:06:40
Initially, people spoke out in defense
of the Russian language and for federalization.01:06:45
That is, the empowerment of regions with greater powers.01:06:48
But almost immediately, the protests
turned into a movement to join Russia.01:06:52
We called it "Russian Spring".01:06:55
In every city both opponents of the new government,01:06:58
as well as those who opposed the division of the country
and the introduction of Russian troops went to the streets.01:07:04
And although the scale of the rallies did not come close to those
in Kiev, thousands of people came out to them in different cities.01:07:10
Meetings between them developed
into fights that the police were not able to stop,01:07:14
because it was demoralized after the use of forces on the Maidan.01:07:18
Starting in late February, the protests ended only a few months later.01:07:22
And it was different in different cities.01:07:25
For example, in Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, Kherson
and Zaporizhzhia, the parties, for the most part, rallied peacefully.01:07:31
But in Kharkov, there were violent clashes between
supporters and opponents of the new government.01:07:36
The latter even seized the administration building
and hung out the Russian flag.01:07:42
On the other hand, supporters of the new government
held mass demonstrations.01:07:46
A month later, the police freed the occupied administration
building went away and the protest in Kharkov ended.01:07:53
Tragic events happened in Odessa,
so let's dwell on them in more detail.01:07:57
In this city, anti-Maidan supporters built a large
tent camp on one of the central squares,01:08:03
proclaimed their republic and put forward
demands for a new government.01:08:08
The result of these events was the tragic clashes
at the house of the trade union.01:08:12
On May 2, the anti-Maidan group, with the inaction
of the police, tried to attack a larger column of Maidan supporters.01:08:20
Among them, Maidan supporters, 2 people died from gunshot wounds.01:08:24
But the opponents of the Maidan, even covered by the police, were
forced to retreat to the Athena shopping center, and were blocked there.01:08:32
Later, the police will nevertheless begin to act
and divide the parties with a cordon,01:08:36
leading and arresting people from the mall.01:08:39
At the same time, part of the Maidan supporters
will decide to go to demolish the Anti-Maidan camp,01:08:45
which is located on the square next to the house of the trade union.01:08:50
The confrontation ended in a terrible tragedy.01:08:53
A fire broke out in the building of the house of the trade union,
where anti-Maidan supporters took refuge.01:08:58
46 people died.01:09:00
This event was perceived in Ukraine
unequivocally - as a terrible tragedy.01:09:03
A nationwide two-day mourning was declared in the country.01:09:07
And in Odessa this day is now mourning every year.01:09:11
In other cities, the protests will gradually die down.01:09:14
But in Donetsk and Luhansk everything will go according to a different scenario.01:09:17
Regional administrations will be seized, people's
republics will be declared, and even a referendum on this will be held.01:09:23
And the clashes between supporters and opponents
of the new government will be especially tough.01:09:27
The cities of Mariupol and Slavyansk stand apart here.01:09:30
In Mariupol, at that time a depressed industrial city on the Sea of Azov,01:09:35
opponents of the authorities will seize the city council
several times, and then try to disarm the military.01:09:41
In the end, this will result in a forceful seizure of the police
station on May 9 and a shootout in the city center.01:09:47
As a result, Mariupol will be left without any power at all.01:09:51
And the presence of law enforcement officers will be limited
only to roadblocks at the entrance to the city.01:09:56
Armed anti-Maidan supporters gather in in the city center,01:09:59
and only after 2 months Mariupol will be liberated
as a result of a special operation.01:10:04
As for Slavyansk, it is from the events in this city that the countdown
of what will later be called a war begins.01:10:11
In other cities, the protests from both sides were mainly Ukrainian citizens.01:10:16
And the leaders were also Ukrainian.01:10:18
In Slavyansk, on April 12, an armed group of people
from Russia, led by the famous Igor Girkin,01:10:24
retired colonel of the FSB, captured the police station,
and then the whole city.01:10:29
And they began an open armed confrontation
with the new government.01:10:32
Ukraine was forced to send the military to fight them.01:10:37
After a while, the protests in the southeast began to fade away01:10:40
against the background of external aggression
and the consolidation of society.01:10:44
An example of such consolidation was the election
of Petro Poroshenko as the new president01:10:47
immediately in the first round, which is not typical for Ukraine.01:10:50
All these events happened very quickly and almost simultaneously. 01:10:54
Before the country had time to come to its senses,
Crimea flared up, then protests happened, then armed people arose.01:11:00
It must be said here that even during the Maidan and later,
especially during the period of instability and impotence of the authorities,01:11:06
ordinary people and their self-organization played a significant role.01:11:10
Something similar in Russia was the flood in Krymsk in 2012.01:11:14
Then many people who had been living their lives yesterday
suddenly became involved in the common cause as volunteers.01:11:20
In Ukraine, a mass volunteer movement arose
during and after the Euromaidan.01:11:25
Someone helped migrants from the war zone,
someone helped the military,01:11:29
in every supermarket in Ukraine then you could find special carts,01:11:33
where anyone could leave food, on the same
day it was sent to where it was needed.01:11:39
So several tense months passed, when the country
faced many challenges at once.01:11:44
And with none of them it was not completely clear how the matter would end.01:11:56
Crimea is a turning point between Ukraine, Russia
and relations between our countries.01:12:01
An event that divided time into before and after.01:12:04
And people on both sides of the border were divided
into those who call it annexation and occupation,01:12:09
and those who consider it a reunion,
joining or returning to their native harbor.01:12:14
Opinions differ about the start date of the Crimean operation.01:12:17
Putin claims that he gave the order for
its preparation on February 23, 2014.01:12:22
The day after the flight of Yanukovych.01:12:25
But many pay attention to the Russian
medals for the annexation of Crimea.01:12:30
The date February 20 is minted there.01:12:33
On that day, Yanukovych was still at his residence,01:12:35
and the coup d'état, as Russian propaganda interprets
the Maidan events, has not yet taken place.01:12:40
But it is possible that Moscow was preparing
for such a development of events.01:12:44
After the flight of Yanukovych, the situation in Crimea began to worsen.01:12:48
In Sevastopol, where the base of the Russian navy was located,01:12:52
the mayor of the city Vladimir Yatsuba was removed from power,01:12:56
who urged not to succumb to provocations and maintain unity with Ukraine.01:13:00
Russian citizen Alexei Chaly became the de facto head of the administration.01:13:04
Let's talk a little about the people of that story.01:13:07
Chaly, although he was born in Moscow, moved
to Sevastopol with his family at an early age.01:13:12
In the 90s, he became a fairly large businessman.01:13:15
He created and headed the company "Tavrida Electric".01:13:19
Chaly was also engaged in social activities,
sponsored several pro-Russian projects,01:13:23
for example, the historical and memorial complex "35th Coastal Battery".01:13:28
During the protests of 2013, he created the "Republic" movement,01:13:31
which advocated holding a referendum on the secession
of Crimea from Ukraine in the event of a change of power in Kyiv.01:13:37
Chaly's political career turned out to be rather short.01:13:40
He stayed at the post of head of Sevastopol only until April 2014,01:13:45
after which he transferred powers to the Deputy
Commander of the Black Sea Fleet Sergei Menyailo.01:13:50
Then for some time he was the chairman
of the legislative assembly of Sevastopol,01:13:54
and in 2016 he finally retired from politics.01:13:58
On the example of Alexei Chaly, who consistently and for
a long time sympathized with Russia and wanted the annexation of Crimea,01:14:04
can be seen that in local politics, with the advent of Russia,01:14:07
somehow there was no place for a person
who sincerely sympathized with it.01:14:12
Dreams of reunification and Putin's real Russia are very different things.01:14:16
As for another well-known personality from the time
of the Crimean events, Prosecutor General Natalya Poklonskaya,01:14:23
for some time she will work in the Crimea, and then
she will become a deputy of the State Duma of Russia.01:14:28
In her new position, she will make extravagant statements,01:14:31
and also show a suspiciously strong love for Nicholas II.01:14:35
A similar fate will befall Igor Girkin,01:14:37
who, after the Crimea, came to grips with fomenting
war in the Donbass.01:14:42
Other militants followed in his footsteps,
some became well-known squad leaders.01:14:46
Their Donbass callsigns are well known -
"Givi", "Motorola" or, say, "Batman".01:14:52
After a while, the field commanders will begin
to die mysteriously one by one.01:14:57
Igor Girkin is not a fool, he will understand hints before anyone
else, leave everything and go to Moscow,01:15:01
where he will remain to blog and dream of Novorossiya.01:15:04
However, these events will happen later.01:15:06
In the meantime, back to the Crimea of 2014.01:15:09
Thousands of rallies of supporters and opponents
of the authorities are also taking place in Simferopol.01:15:14
One of which, on February 26, will end with a clash near
the building of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic.01:15:20
Two people died in the stampede.01:15:23
The next day, Russian special forces entered the Crimea.01:15:27
More precisely, we now know that it was Russian special forces.01:15:30
And then they were just armed people in uniform and without insignia.01:15:34
At the time, the Kremlin categorically denied that they were Russian servicemen.01:15:38
They took control of the most important infrastructure
facilities, as well as government buildings,01:15:43
and raised Russian flags over them.01:15:46
Under the control of these little green men or "polite people"
as Russian television called them,01:15:51
in those days, the supreme meeting of the Crimean Council was held,01:15:54
at which the head of a small pro-Russian party
Sergei Aksyonov was appointed head of the Crimean government.01:15:59
Aksyonov is a pro-Russian Crimean politician
who has long held a pro-Russian position.01:16:04
However, earlier in the Crimea, his party did not receive
significant support in the elections.01:16:08
In the last vote in 2010, Russian Unity, where he
was the leader, received 4% of the vote.01:16:15
Now Aksyonov is the head of the Crimea.01:16:18
He resubordinates to himself all the power structures of the Crimea,01:16:21
and those, along with Russian special forces and self-defense units01:16:26
block Ukrainian military units.01:16:29
The military is given an ultimatum:01:16:31
either go over to the side of the new authorities,
or lay down their arms and leave the peninsula, or prepare for an assault.01:16:36
In the absence of clear orders from Kyiv, most commanders
chose the first or second option.01:16:42
But in several cases it came to the assault.01:16:44
This happened, for example,
with the Marine Corps base near Feodosia.01:16:47
During the assault on one of the military units,
Ukrainian ensign Sergei Kokurin was killed.01:16:52
Soon, not a single combat-ready unit of the Ukrainian
army remained on the territory of Crimea.01:16:57
However, the resistance of individual units
continued until the end of March.01:17:00
For example, to prevent Ukrainian ships from
going to the sea and moving to Odessa,01:17:04
the exit from Donuzlav bay was blocked,01:17:07
for which they specially flooded one of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet.01:17:11
The resistance of the teams on the ships continued until March 26.01:17:15
Belbek air base came under the control of Russian units only on March 22.01:17:21
The fate of Ukrainian units and ships was closely watched in Ukraine.01:17:24
But there were no clear orders to resist.01:17:27
The country was experiencing a collapse of power,
and after the Maidan, they decided to drag out the time as much as possible.01:17:33
However, events developed rapidly.01:17:36
Even in the first days of the conflict, the Supreme Council
decided to hold a referendum on expanding the autonomy of Crimea.01:17:42
Voting is scheduled for the end of May, then on March 30,01:17:46
but already on March 6, the date was again postponed
and the referendum eventually took place on March 16, 14.01:17:51
In 10 days.01:17:53
Later, Igor Girkin, known for the war in Donbass, admitted in his interviews 01:17:57
that after the seizure of the Supreme Council by
the special forces, he personally took part in organizing the "voluntary" voting of deputies.01:18:04
I did not see, unfortunately, any support from the state
authorities in Simferopol, where I specifically was.01:18:13
I didn't see it.01:18:15
The deputies were gathered by the militias.01:18:19
To drive them into the hall, so that they accept
the referendum, what can I say.01:18:23
Yes, I was one of the commanders of these militias,
I saw it all with my own eyes.01:18:29
It is clear that such an event under the control
of armed people cannot be called an honest expression of will.01:18:35
It takes time, debate, and free speech on both
sides to organize a normal vote.01:18:41
Then people can make up their minds and make a decision,01:18:44
what exactly they decide to do.01:18:46
In Crimea, everything happened at lightning speed.01:18:49
There is a separate video about this on my YouTube,
if you are interested, take a look.01:18:53
The day after the referendum on March 17, 2014,
Crimea declared its independence.01:18:58
And a day later, Vladimir Putin signed a decree
on the entry of the republic into Russia.01:19:04
A new era has begun in the life of our countries.01:19:07
An era that does not fit the 21st century01:19:10
in which they no longer fight for the seizure of territories,
following the example of empires of past centuries.01:19:15
The Crimean events have greatly changed both Russia and Ukraine.01:19:19
For Russia, this has become a very important point
on the path of building up confrontation with the rest of the world.01:19:24
Putin had changed the course of foreign policy many years before,01:19:28
from cooperation with the West to opposition to it.01:19:31
But after the events in Crimea, which almost all countries
of the world still consider Ukrainian,01:19:37
Russia finally turned into an outsider.01:19:40
In addition to the measures announced 2 weeks before that,
the US is imposing new sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy.01:19:47
Energy, defense and financial.01:19:51
Economic sanctions and retaliatory bans on the import
of products from Europe and the USA,01:19:56
because of which prices for goods in Russian stores soared,01:20:01
the collapse of the ruble - all these are the
consequences of the Crimean events.01:20:05
The peninsula itself has become a subsidized region
that requires significant investments from the Russian federal budget.01:20:12
But on the other hand, the story with the Crimea caused
a sharp rise in the rating of Vladimir Putin.01:20:16
And he kept at prohibitively high levels for several more years.01:20:20
For Ukraine, the actions of a neighbor that took advantage
of a difficult situation to take away a piece of territory01:20:25
came as a shock and a complete surprise.01:20:27
Together with the war in the Donbass,
which began a little later,01:20:30
the annexation of Crimea has caused the most serious
crisis in the attitude of Ukrainians towards Russians. 01:20:36
Now we have a very long time to look for common
ground and a way out of this crisis.01:20:48
Any war is always a tragedy.01:20:50
Sooner or later, it gets even those who could
not think that the war could touch him.01:20:55
Especially catastrophic when it happens in your neighborhood.01:20:59
The war in the Ukrainian Donbass became such a tragedy,01:21:03
which started almost 8 years ago.01:21:05
According to our propaganda,01:21:07
the Nazis came to power and decided to suppress
the protests in the southeast with tanks.01:21:11
Because Ukraine is being created as the antipode of Russia,01:21:14
therefore, they prefer not to notice anything, including the swastikas
with which neo-Nazis walk around the cities of Ukraine.01:21:23
But after the Maidan, no one would dare to do such a thing.01:21:25
The country got a too dramatic experience
after Yanukovych tried to crack down on the protesters.01:21:32
In reality, the main point of the conflict was that on April 12, 201401:21:37
a group of armed men who arrived from Russia,
and led by retired FSB colonel Igor Girkin,01:21:43
seized a police station in the city of Slavyansk in the Donetsk region.01:21:47
And began an armed struggle against the new Ukrainian government.01:21:51
Here is what Girkin himself said about this.01:21:53
I participated in the return of Crimea to Russia,
but not as an intelligence officer,01:22:00
one can say, as a volunteer, on the one hand,
on the other, as a confidant of Aksyonov himself, at that time01:22:05
and my formal boss Konstantin Malofeev.01:22:09
True, if our detachment had not come to the Donbass and would not have
become the core of resistance, the core of the "Russian Spring" in the Donbass,01:22:20
then, most likely, without this core, "Russian Spring"
would have been nipped in the bud.01:22:25
They freely occupied the entire border without a fight.01:22:28
At the time of my departure from Slavyansk, the DPR
did not have a single meter of border with the Russian Federation.01:22:34
The only crossing was on Luhansk, and then it was held by a unit of 205,01:22:40
205 - this is the call sign that was supplied
by me from Slavyansk, I gave him weapons and ammunition.01:22:46
Ukraine responded by launching an anti-terrorist special operation.01:22:50
Subsequently, hostilities engulfed entire cities,01:22:52
and soon about half of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.01:22:56
Tanks, artillery and planes were used.01:22:58
The real war has begun.01:23:01
Were the Ukrainian military ready for war?01:23:04
Here's an illustration for you:01:23:05
at the very beginning of hostilities in April 2014, one
of the detachments of the armed forces of Ukraine01:23:10
was disarmed by local residents in Kramatorsk.01:23:13
And the BMP detachments were hijacked to Slavyansk.01:23:16
And such cases were not isolated.01:23:19
During this period, the outbreak of the war could be frozen
at the level of a local incident, literally stopped.01:23:25
But there was no political will in Russia for this.01:23:28
Our country actively supplied the separatists with equipment,
for example, the one that allows you to shoot down planes.01:23:34
Several helicopters and a whole plane with paratroopers were shot down,01:23:37
they were heading to Luhansk airport.01:23:40
49 people died.01:23:41
Among them was, for example, Sergei Shostak, who
was born in the Dnepropetrovsk region, he died at the age of 33.01:23:48
He left behind a wife and two children.01:23:50
Two more dead in the crashed plane were born in Russia,01:23:53
Vladimir Burkavtsov was born in the Belgorod region
and Alexander Kazalei was born in the Primorsky region.01:24:01
Then it all escalated.01:24:03
As a result, in the midst of the fighting, in the summer
of 2014, in the sky over the Donbass 01:24:10
a civilian plane was shot down - a Boeing MH-17,
which was heading from Amsterdam to Malaysia.01:24:17
298 people died.01:24:20
The war literally touched those who expected it the least,01:24:23
and just flew past on a civilian plane from the Netherlands to Malaysia.01:24:27
Among the passengers were the most ordinary people.01:24:29
Well, here, for example, Nick Norris, an Australian from the city of Perth,
he and his 3 daughters, whose names were Mo, Evie and Otis,01:24:38
were returning from a family holiday in Europe to Australia
and died due to a Buk shot from the territory of Donbass.01:24:44
At this stage, after the tragedy of flight MH-17,
the conflict attracted the attention of the whole world,01:24:50
and could also end, whether it was the political will of Russia.01:24:54
But in August 2014, there was a military escalation.01:24:57
The result - the Ukrainian soldiers who died in Ilovaisk,
the graves of paratroopers in Pskov.01:25:03
There were prisoners from both sides, including from the regular Russian units.01:25:10
- Why not? You said it like it's impossible.
- No, it will be necessary to go for military tickets,01:25:16
for phones, for sim cards, for belongings, but...01:25:20
At least after all that happened, well, few people now want to continue to serve.01:25:27
The war will come to its peak in 2015.01:25:30
And it will begin to subside after the battles for
the Debaltsevo station and the Donetsk airport.01:25:34
Both of these points became places of fierce fighting.01:25:37
After that the war will become less intense.01:25:39
But it won't end.01:25:41
What do we have by 2021?01:25:44
30% of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions remained uncontrolled by Kiev.01:25:48
Long lines of trenches, which, by the way, everyone can see on Google maps,01:25:53
the front stretched from Mariupol near the Sea of Azov
to Donetsk, from Donetsk through the Gorlovka to Lugansk01:25:59
and so on to the border with Russia.01:26:02
There are hundreds of thousands of people along the front line.01:26:06
These are colossal human resources that are
literally withdrawn from the economy.01:26:11
Civilians and soldiers on both sides are killed every month.01:26:14
More than 13,000 people have already died as a result of the conflict!01:26:18
And about 40 thousand have been injured.01:26:20
Did life get better after the start of the war?01:26:23
Of course not.01:26:25
More than a million refugees and even more
who could not leave will speak about it.01:26:30
The front line divided relatives and friends,01:26:32
who are now forced to stand in queues
for many hours to get to the other side.01:26:37
Attempts to build the Russian world in Putin's fashion
were created from the relatively prosperous Luhansk and Donetsk01:26:42
similarity to conflict Africa.01:26:45
There is a complete legal vacuum, huge prices, literally for everything,01:26:49
lack of work, quality medicine and, of course, elections.01:26:53
There are no constant shellings,
when you regularly had to hide in basements.01:26:57
But there is no normal life either.01:26:59
How did it happen to allow war in the 21st century,
and even where people remember the horrors of the Second World War?01:27:05
The war in Donbas has become another dark
page in our modern Russian history.01:27:18
The "Russian world", a concept invented by
the Kremlin theorists, is perceived quite unambiguously today.01:27:24
Like, if on your territory a significant proportion
of the population speaks Russian, then we are coming to you.01:27:30
We will come to you with our propaganda,01:27:32
we will finance the most radical political forces,01:27:35
we will work on the linguistic split of your society.01:27:38
The Russian world is a war, this is Donetsk and Lugansk,01:27:42
this is proxy aggression, the creation of separatist movements,01:27:46
their military, financial and political support.01:27:49
These are the dead and the wounded.01:27:51
These are territories deliberately held in extra-legal status.01:27:55
And yet, long before the madness of political technologists
and false ideas about the restoration of either the Soviet Union,01:28:02
or the Russian Empire, turned into
a real aggression, the Russian world existed.01:28:07
But it was not called that, we just lived in it every day,01:28:10
taking advantage of this circumstance.01:28:13
For any Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian company,
the CIS neighbors became the most natural external market.01:28:22
Any site in Russian, any service from
a search engine to a social network,01:28:27
since its launch, it has not worked for the domestic market,01:28:30
but for the entire post-Soviet space,
for which Russian was the main language.01:28:35
Yandex and Vkontakte have largely become what they
have become - mega-successful local competitors to the global companies01:28:42
precisely because their local market, in terms of coverage
and attraction of talented personnel,01:28:48
was never limited to the state border of the Russian Federation.01:28:52
They initially served the entire post-Soviet language environment.01:28:55
But the most telling example is the current president
of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky,01:28:59
his main business is the Kvartal-95 studio,01:29:02
inside Ukraine, it would be just a fairly successful
creative team that receives good money on tour.01:29:09
But the studio has become a whole corporation.01:29:12
And this happened precisely because all the main products
of Kvartal are international from the very beginning.01:29:19
The fantastically successful series "Matchmakers"
was filmed by a Ukrainian company on Ukrainian territory,01:29:24
what the viewer of the TV channel "Belarus-1"
or "Russia" could not have guessed about,01:29:29
broadcasting it with almost no less success than Inter in Ukraine.01:29:34
Because Budko and Kovalev, played by Russian
actors for a Ukrainian company, -01:29:39
not citizens of Ukraine, Russia or Belarus,
they are universal post-Soviet archetypes,01:29:45
living in a typical post-Soviet reality.01:29:48
The situations they get into, their environment, jokes and gags
are universal and recognizable to all of us.01:29:57
The village of the Budko family, the city apartment
of the Kovalevs, the Black Sea home hotel,01:30:02
each location is not Kyiv, not the village of Moshchun
and not Yalta, where the shooting actually took place.01:30:07
It's just a typical post-Soviet village.01:30:10
Exactly the same could be in the Pskov or Mogilev region.01:30:13
A city high-rise building familiar to every viewer
from the nightmares of Ilya Varlamov.01:30:20
Exactly the same ones are in Minsk and Moscow.01:30:23
Semi-legal guest house on the coast, in the frame
there is Crimea, but it could be Anapa.01:30:31
The country in which the action takes place is not named anywhere.01:30:34
Even the currency is not mentioned anywhere.01:30:37
Because it doesn't really matter to the story. 01:30:40
This is how the real Russian world works.01:30:43
You can create a product that will not only be understood
without translation by a huge region,01:30:49
but due to the cultural and historical commonality,
this product will be its own for the entire region.01:30:56
There is a very simple, logically flawless,
empirically observable thesis:01:31:02
belonging to a large language environment is a fundamental advantage.01:31:06
I run my channel in Russian.01:31:08
I can be watched by viewers from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,
the Baltic States, partly from the post-Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia,01:31:15
as well as numerous Russian, Ukrainian
and Belarusian diasporas around the world.01:31:19
By the way, subscribe to my channel, if you have not done it yet.01:31:22
So, the potential coverage of YouTube in Russian
is more than 250 million people.01:31:27
my 800-odd thousand subscribers for the Russian-speaking
segment is not an outstanding result at all.01:31:34
Good, but among many.01:31:36
Moreover, this is a real commercial company,01:31:39
which brings in a good income, employs dozens of people,
sells advertising for serious money.01:31:45
But in the ranking of Russian-language channels,
I take pride of place towards the end of the second thousand.01:31:51
And Ilya Varlamov, where you are now watching this video,
with his 3 million subscribers, takes 336th place.01:31:59
If I ran my channel, for example, in Greek
with a potential reach of 12 million people,01:32:07
then my result would be impressive, maybe
it would be the biggest channel ever.01:32:11
And the result of Varlamov would have been unattainable in general.01:32:14
Language is not a flag, not a coat of arms and not a hymn.01:32:18
This is not a symbol, but an applied tool.01:32:20
And the more people use this tool,01:32:23
the more clients, viewers, employers, readers understand it,01:32:27
the better this tool is.01:32:29
An extensive language environment guarantees you,
other things being equal, greater success.01:32:34
The Russian language is not like English, sure.01:32:36
The maximum circulation of a book in Russian will
never come close to the records of English-language publications.01:32:42
Swedish video blogger PewDiePie runs his YouTube
channel in English and has a record 110 million subscribers.01:32:50
Our language environment is significantly narrower.01:32:52
But a common language, historical and cultural
connection is almost the only Soviet heritage,01:32:58
which brought us all great benefit, not harm.01:33:03
Just like Spanish and English are the rarest example
of a colonial experience with a similar effect.01:33:11
But unlike England, Spain, France or Portugal,01:33:15
the Russian leadership deliberately turned the Russian language
from an advantage into a threat.01:33:21
The government stated directly and unambiguously:01:33:25
"The Russian language is our property,01:33:28
our dominance and our borders extend
wherever Russian speakers live.01:33:34
The more common the Russian language is in your country,
the more conditional and limited your sovereignty becomes.01:33:42
With the annexation of Crimea, with the aggression
in the east of Ukraine, these declarations have taken on a real form.01:33:49
And in terms of long-term consequences,
this is the main sin of the Russian autocracy.01:33:54
The question is to ensure the legitimate rights and interests
of Russian and Russian-speaking citizens of the south-east of Ukraine.01:34:02
Let me remind you that this is, using the terminology
of tsarist times, this is Novorossia.01:34:09
And these are Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa01:34:17
they were not part of Ukraine in tsarist times.01:34:19
These are all the territories that were transferred
to Ukraine in the 1920s by the Soviet government.01:34:27
Sooner or later, for one reason or another,
the autocrat will cease to occupy his seat.01:34:31
Sooner or later, political reform will take place in Russia.01:34:35
We will stop jailing people for opinions,
removing candidates from elections,01:34:39
writing insane repressive legislation and attacking neighboring countries.01:34:43
But the process, which boils down to the fact that it is better for a citizen
not to understand Vladimir Solovyov and Dmitry Kiselev without translation,01:34:49
the process of crowding out the Russian language
from circulation in the post-Soviet space01:34:53
won't be easy to stop.01:34:56
If it seems to you that we are talking about centuries,
then this is not at all the case.01:34:59
We have before our eyes the experience of Georgia,
where society is quite clearly divided according to the mark of 30 years.01:35:05
Young people do not speak Russian, very young people
no longer understand Russian.01:35:10
The Russian language is not in the cultural circulation of Georgia.01:35:12
It is not used in social networks, books are not written in it,
videos are not made on Youtube and songs are not written in Russian.01:35:18
To see the crazy path that we have traveled through the fault of Putin,01:35:22
one fact is enough:01:35:23
in the presidential elections in Ukraine in 2004,
which ended in the Orange Revolution,01:35:28
Vladimir Putin actively and openly supported Viktor Yanukovych,01:35:32
for a young viewer, it needs to be explained, because
when viewed from today's day it may not be entirely clear01:35:38
what I mean - Vladimir Putin answered a journalist's
question without hitting it, did not say anything on a direct line,01:35:44
that he likes one presidential candidate more than another candidate,01:35:47
Vladimir Putin literally participated in Yanukovych's presidential campaign.01:35:51
He traveled to Ukraine several times during the pre-election period01:35:55
and even held a joint press conference with Yanukovych.01:35:59
2004 is considered the past by historical standards.01:36:03
It was obvious to everyone then that Putin's active support
would help the Ukrainian presidential candidate,01:36:09
that the president of Russia can be a political actor in a neighboring country,01:36:13
an important leader of public opinion, which is
guided by a significant part of society.01:36:18
After 2014, any connection, any association with the Russian leadership01:36:24
for a politician throughout the post-Soviet space,
not only in Ukraine, is compromising evidence.01:36:30
Let us recall how the Belarusian crisis of 2020 began.01:36:34
The main vice of Viktor Babariko, in the presentation
of Belarusian propaganda,01:36:38
was not at all that he was a bad oligarch,01:36:40
but the fact that he heads a subsidiary bank of Gazprom,
which means that he is a Kremlin creature, an agent of Putin.01:36:46
I'm talking about compromising evidence,
based not on my own subjective idea,01:36:51
but on the objective sociological dynamics, which fully reflects
the changes in Ukrainian society.01:36:57
According to the Kiev International Institute of Sociology,01:37:00
in 2001-2002, a third of Ukrainians supported the idea
that Russia and Ukraine would unite into one country.01:37:06
A third of the population is the basis for the existence
of a huge political party that seriously claims leadership.01:37:13
At the same time, 43% of Ukrainians are
in favor of an alliance with Russia.01:37:18
And 83% have a positive attitude towards the eastern neighbor.01:37:21
It was so not so long ago.01:37:23
That is, any political force that at that time claimed the votes in Ukraine,01:37:28
simply cannot ignore the request, if not for unification,
then certainly for a very tight integration of Ukraine and Russia,01:37:33
absolutely for friendship.01:37:36
At that time, only 7% of Ukrainians were
categorically against the union with Russia,01:37:40
an insignificant minority from an electoral point of view.01:37:44
Finally, 68% oppose joining NATO.01:37:47
This is a picture at the beginning of the 2000s.01:37:50
20 years later, the numbers are:01:37:53
6% of Ukrainians are in favor of a single state with Russia,01:37:56
68% are in favor of joining NATO, 45% are against an alliance with Russia.01:38:02
The successful and consistent foreign policy of the Russian
leadership has turned public opinion in Ukraine quite the opposite!01:38:09
Allied relations with Russia from a political position
that reflects the demand of society have become political suicide.01:38:17
And it's not about politics at all.01:38:20
It's just that Russia began to be perceived
as an aggressor, a threat to sovereignty.01:38:24
And the Russian language is an instrument
of aggression and propaganda.01:38:27
Today in Ukraine there are numerous laws
on the protection of the national language.01:38:31
He has been allocated a mandatory quota on television and radio.01:38:35
Since 2014, all Russian-language schools have been closed in the country.01:38:39
Moreover, there is a special law regulating the service sector:01:38:43
sellers, waiters, bank tellers - everyone is obliged
to start a conversation with a client only in Ukrainian.01:38:49
You can continue, if it is convenient for both, in Russian.01:38:51
After all, many continue to speak Russian, and this is considered normal.01:38:55
But they must start a conversation in Ukrainian.01:38:57
We will not now go into a discussion of how it all works, and all that.01:39:02
The very direction of thought is clear.01:39:04
The Russian language has become a threat to be fought
against for a large, important country like Ukraine.01:39:12
The insane phrase "Russian is a threat" that needs
to be fought is especially applicable to Ukraine.01:39:18
But the facts are this.01:39:30
In May 14, extraordinary presidential elections were held in Ukraine.01:39:35
They elected Petro Poroshenko in the first round.01:39:39
He came to power on the wave of the consolidation
of society and the great expectations of the people.01:39:44
He came as a compromise figure: a native of the old power elites,
who, however, supported the Maidan.01:39:50
His campaign promises to stop the war responded
to the mood of Ukrainian citizens.01:39:56
It has already happened in the political history
of Ukraine that in times of serious social upheavals01:40:01
Ukrainians chose not someone new, but someone
well-known, although not completely old.01:40:07
So in 1991 they preferred Leonid Kravchuk,
who was connected with the Soviet past.01:40:13
And Vyacheslav Chernovol was rejected.01:40:19
The policy of Petro Poroshenko was strongly influenced
by the annexation of Crimea, separatist movements and war.01:40:27
But instead of a militaristic position at the beginning,
he chose the image of a peacemaker and unifier of the country.01:40:33
And even delivered part of the inaugural speech in Russian.01:40:42
Our dear brothers and sisters, fellow citizens!01:40:46
Many of you have already experienced the delights of the rule of terrorists.01:40:51
They, in addition to looting and mockery of civilians,01:40:55
brought the already crisis-ridden economy of the region
to the brink of complete catastrophe.01:41:01
But under no circumstances will we leave you in trouble.01:41:05
Only towards the end of the term Poroshenko's rhetoric
clearly took on a patriotic and militant direction.01:41:11
And the slogan appeared: "Army! Language! Faith!"01:41:14
He wanted to be re-elected with this slogan.01:41:17
The new government immediately identified itself as a reformer.01:41:21
Foreign specialists from Poland, Lithuania, Georgia,
and the United States were invited to government positions. 01:41:29
They were to become agents of change in the country.01:41:33
It was they who started the reform of the police and medicine, decentralization.01:41:38
By itself, this fact adds drama to the situation.01:41:42
It shows how broad the reform mandate was
for the first post-revolutionary government.01:41:49
President Poroshenko and the new convocation
of the Verkhovna Rada had almost unlimited trust,01:41:55
allowing for very rapid reforms.01:41:58
Attracting foreigners to public positions of power -01:42:01
this is not an ordinary step even for the most stable liberal democracies.01:42:07
When the demand for change is so strong that
the involvement of foreign specialists is welcomed by society,01:42:14
this is the moment when the government's hands
are completely free to carry out any reforms.01:42:19
This is the rarest historical moment
when you can not make difficult compromises,01:42:23
gradually bogged down in the inertia of the bureaucratic system,01:42:27
but when the change can be very fast, very massive, extremely radical.01:42:32
You can turn a blind eye to many mistakes
of the first government after the Maidan.01:42:36
But not for the omissions of such a historical moment,01:42:39
when you can build a new country, new institutions,
a completely different life, from scratch!01:42:44
Anything inefficient - to liquidate, anything to privatize.01:42:49
Such was the need for change.01:42:51
Such was the willingness to endure
temporary difficulties in the name of a new life.01:42:56
We have seen how in a similar situation this task
was solved by the example of the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia.01:43:02
And we, unfortunately, saw how the moment was lost in Ukraine.01:43:07
As a revolutionary passion, not in everything,
but in many ways, Ukraine has not led to broad reforms.01:43:22
Let's see what happened
to Poroshenko and his government.01:43:26
Decentralization was one
of the first reforms in post-Maidan Ukraine.01:43:30
Since 2014, settlements have been able to unite into territorial units,01:43:36
who got more powers and more money.01:43:39
If earlier almost everything earned locally was given to Kyiv,01:43:44
what is happening now in Russia,01:43:47
and then the city asked for its own money from the center,01:43:52
now most of the money stays in the city.01:43:55
For example, personal income tax is distributed as follows:01:43:58
earlier, only 25% of it remained in the city, and now as much as 60%.01:44:04
Cities gained real financial independence.01:44:08
During the first 5 years after the start of the reform,
the annual income of cities increased by 3.5 times.01:44:15
During the first 5 years after the start of the reform,
the annual income of cities increased by 3.5 times.01:44:23
Since 2017, Ukrainians have been traveling
to the European Union without visas.01:44:27
Plus, after obtaining a visa-free regime,
foreign low-cost airlines came to Ukraine.01:44:32
That made travel even more accessible.01:44:35
During the same period, the army was completely renewed.01:44:37
In the conditions of active operations in the Donbass,
it had to be created practically from scratch.01:44:42
In the first years of the war, volunteers helped a lot,
who donated money from all over Ukraine,01:44:47
bought the necessary military equipment and food.01:44:50
In 2019, the course for joining NATO and
the European Union was fixed in the constitution of Ukraine01:44:56
and began to bring the armed forces to NATO standards.01:45:00
As part of the fight against corruption, in 2016 they introduced electronic
declaration of income and property for all officials and politicians.01:45:08
During the Revolution of Dignity, monuments to Lenin
were massively demolished throughout Ukraine.01:45:13
And a year after the Maidan, decommunization began,01:45:16
within which cities were renamed, for example,
Dnepropetrovsk was renamed Dnipro.01:45:21
And the street names dedicated to the communists
disappeared from the maps of Ukraine.01:45:26
The main direction in the foreign policy of Ukraine at that time
was the search for allied countries and the formation of an anti-Putin coalition.01:45:34
A conditional pro-Western consensus has formed in society.01:45:38
Whatever the political forces aew,
but if they claim to be a broad public support,01:45:43
they must correspond to the pro-Western vector now.01:45:47
Now let’s talk about failed reforms.01:45:49
Reforms of the police and law enforcement system,
following the example of Georgia, did not work out in Ukraine.01:45:54
It turned out to be something between a Russian
sign change and a full Georgian renovation.01:45:59
There are some facade things: renaming the militia into the national police,01:46:04
creation of a patrol service, a convenient service
center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,01:46:08
but the criminal police and investigators remained
the same as under Yanukovych.01:46:12
As a result, the trust of the residents is low.01:46:16
One of the reasons for the failure of police
reform is the failed judicial reform.01:46:19
The suspended police officers were able to
easily recover through the courts.01:46:23
In the course of judicial reform, it was supposed
to create a new supreme court from scratch.01:46:27
And dishonest judges who have been tainted by participation
in dishonest political trials should be fired.01:46:32
But the reform did not go ahead, and as a result,
compromised personnel remained in the system,01:46:38
who served the interests of the previous government.01:46:41
And now they began to serve the new one.01:46:43
In general, personnel policy is Poroshenko's weak point.01:46:46
Some people close to him were involved in corruption schemes.01:46:49
A lot of professional and scandalous people
from the presidential party appeared in politics.01:46:55
The so-called Svinarchuk Gate became a big scandal.01:46:58
By the name of one of the participants.01:47:00
Businessmen from Poroshenko's entourage were
accused of buying goods for the army at inflated prices.01:47:06
Despite promises to fight corruption, the authorities
left the old schemes of redistribution of funds in the interests of businessmen.01:47:14
As a result, the privatization of a number of state-owned objects failed.01:47:18
Smuggling flourished in the Donbass.01:47:20
Income earned on that went past the state budget of Ukraine.01:47:25
Reforms were naturally slowed down.01:47:27
A team of young foreign specialists
who were the faces of modernization,01:47:32
were soon replaced by local strong business executives.01:47:35
By the end of the presidency of Petro Poroshenko,
the Ukrainian people were pretty disappointed.01:47:40
As Ukrainians say, during the years of Poroshenko's
rule, he did not live up to the ideals of the "Revolution of Dignity".01:47:46
And his fight against corruption, to put it mildly, failed.01:47:50
Ukrainian post-Maidan authorities, having received
a colossal level of confidence of Ukrainians,01:47:55
could carry out any reforms.01:47:57
But in the end, they turned out to be much
more modest than they could have been and than society expected.01:48:02
However, we must remember that the new government
took over the country in conditions of state chaos and separatist anarchy.01:48:08
When it was not known whether Ukraine would survive at all.01:48:12
And 5 years later, based on the results of fair democratic
elections, power was calmly and peacefully transferred to the next president.01:48:20
A country with relative economic stability, a modernized
army and a pro-European course of development01:48:26
began to live with the new president, Vladimir Zelensky.01:48:44
Now let's talk about the presidency of Vladimir Zelensky01:48:47
and about what has changed in the country since his arrival.01:48:51
In general, the political system of Ukraine is interesting and dynamic.01:48:55
Since the 90s, new parties and politicians have appeared
here regularly, and in large numbers they come to parliament.01:49:05
While in our country this process was slowed
down in the 2000s by 4-5 unchanged batches.01:49:11
The most popular type of political projects
in Ukraine are, well, such leadership parties.01:49:17
First of all, united around the person.01:49:20
And already in the second around some ideology or principles.01:49:24
There are also a large number of parties
and projects presented only in certain areas.01:49:30
In Russia, this is generally prohibited by law.01:49:32
Along with the old politicians, there are new ones.01:49:36
The same Yulia Tymoshenko is a political centenarian, for example,01:49:39
who started her career in the late 90s, has her own
party and even almost became president.01:49:46
Petro Poroshenko - an example from the other side,
has come a long way from oligarch to politician and president.01:49:52
Some politicians are leaving the stage, some are
on a well-deserved pension, like Viktor Yushchenko or Leonid Kuchma,01:49:58
and others go into political non-existence,01:50:01
like, for example, the communist Petr Simonenko
or the nationalist Oleg Tyagnibok.01:50:06
But new politicians also come, often rising
to the state scale from the mayors of cities.01:50:12
For example, the mayor of Lvov Andrey Sadovoy,
or the mayor of the Dnieper - Boris Filatov,01:50:17
By the way, I read his Facebook - it's very interesting, he writes in Russian,
I've been reading for a long time, he has a cool Facebook page.01:50:24
The social lift also works for activists.01:50:28
And, as we saw in 2019, for cultural figures too.01:50:33
And I said a few words about high-ranking politicians.01:50:36
But there are also deputies of parliament, if we list them, you will get tired.01:50:40
There are also city councils, in general, political life here is very active.01:50:45
For a long time, Ukraine, including because of political technology,01:50:48
divided into a conditional East and a conditional West.01:50:51
And if someone had more sympathy in the east,
then it turned out to be a pro-Russian politician,01:50:56
and if in the West, then pro-European.01:50:59
Vladimir Zelensky broke this scheme.01:51:02
And he was elected with a majority of votes in almost every region.01:51:07
There are several explanations for his stunning victory.01:51:11
Firstly, in Ukrainian society there was an unfulfilled,
ever since the Maidan, request for new faces.01:51:18
He was part of a worldwide trend towards non-systemic
politicians that swept across the States and across Europe.01:51:25
On April 21, there is only one choice:01:51:29
past or future.01:51:31
End of an old era. April 21.01:51:36
Sociologists spoke long before
the elections long before the elections.01:51:39
Even well-known politicians did not have the highest rating.01:51:42
But there was no one who would occupy this free niche.01:51:46
Secondly, the previous government in the person
of Poroshenko as a consolidated formation of opinions has fizzled out,01:51:52
bogged down in corruption scandals
and failed or stalled important reforms.01:51:58
Moreover, during the elections, it generally focused
on the conservative-patriotic electorate,01:52:04
along the way, scaring people with the war,
and the society is tired of the war.01:52:08
But Zelensky had an excellent election campaign.01:52:11
With strong and original moves. 01:52:14
You can recall the debate of candidates at the stadium.01:52:19
I turn to Petro Poroshenko.01:52:21
You called me to the debate,
in the hope that I would run away, hide.01:52:26
I am not you in 2014.01:52:30
I'm ready to kneel now01:52:33
before every woman who lost her husband at war.01:52:37
And I invite you to debate.01:52:50
Zelensky was well known to Ukrainians.01:52:52
And was not associated with failures and problems.01:52:55
And his simple style of communication
evoked sympathy and was associated with change,01:52:59
which for some reason did not happen in recent years.01:53:02
The debate was not with a puppet of the Kremlin or01:53:05
Kolomoisky, not with a person from Malorossiya, not with a clown.01:53:10
But with the presidential candidate
of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.01:53:14
I give you 24 hours.01:53:17
Think about it.01:53:21
The presidential election was immediately
followed by parliamentary elections,01:53:25
on which the presidential party won the majority of seats.01:53:28
This in itself is not typical for Ukraine.01:53:31
For the first time in the country's history,
one party received enough votes01:53:34
to form a majority in parliament
without a coalition with other forces.01:53:39
Thus, the president concentrated in his hands
full legislative and executive power.01:53:46
And this, together with the highest personal rating.01:53:49
Thus, Zelensky has the opportunity
for rapid and large-scale change.01:53:55
Let's remember his campaign promises.01:53:58
To seek to establish peace in the Donbass and release prisoners,01:54:02
to reduce heating tariffs by 2 times.01:54:04
To fight the oligarchs, bring new people into power.01:54:09
To investigate the corruption of the previous government
and uncover high-profile political cases and murders,01:54:14
to simplify interaction with the state and transfer state services online,01:54:20
what was later called digitalization.01:54:23
Zelensky also promised to build airports, roads and stadiums,
to carry out the long-awaited land reform,01:54:28
that is, to allow the sale and purchase of land,01:54:32
engage in medical reform and much more.01:54:35
Technocrats entered the first government of the new president.01:54:39
That is, professionals without political ambitions.01:54:41
And this also happened for the first time in the history of Ukraine.01:54:45
Unless the Minister of the Interior
has remained the same since 2014, Arsen Avakov.01:54:50
But the main thing is that 35-year-old Aleksey
Goncharuk became the minister.01:54:56
A liberal who previously dealt with business deregulation. 01:55:00
The president set ambitious goals and
gave the government a year to show results.01:55:06
Then the parliament began to pass laws at a great speed,
in Ukraine it was called "turbo mode".01:55:12
Goncharuk's government carried out market reforms,
engaged in privatization and deregulation.01:55:17
Six months later, connected with the wiretapping of the Prime Minister,01:55:20
where he questions the competence of the president,01:55:23
and with the advent of covid, for the lack of visible
quick results, the government was dissolved,01:55:28
not having existed for the promised year.01:55:32
The next government is less bold in composition.01:55:35
Zelensky is still betting on new people,01:55:37
but not so much already, and proven strong
business executives bureaucrats are added to them.01:55:43
Also at this time, Zelensky will be credited
with dependence on the oligarch Kolomoisky,01:55:48
due to close ties during the pre-election period.01:55:51
Subsequent events will show that these fears were not justified.01:55:56
Now half of Zelensky's presidential term has passed, 2.5 years.01:56:01
2 of which fell on the hardest covid crisis, hitherto unseen anywhere.01:56:05
You can see what happened: what worked and what didn’t.01:56:10
It is appropriate to say that during this time,
firstly, the president himself has changed.01:56:13
If at the beginning of the term he was open and
easily improvised, responding to criticism or questions,01:56:18
now he looks more like an ordinary high-ranking politician.01:56:22
He became official, obviously tired of the endless questions.01:56:25
Power has had its effect on man.01:56:28
But Zelensky's approval rating is still high.01:56:30
Even unusually high for a president at the equator of a term in Ukraine.01:56:35
Usually presidents in Ukraine are written off earlier.01:56:39
What has been achieved in two years?01:56:41
Finally passed the law on the sale of land.01:56:44
With this reform, the country was 30 years late01:56:46
and for a long time remained one of the last countries
in the world without private ownership of land.01:56:52
It significantly slowed down its development.01:56:54
Digitalization has been an undoubted achievement.01:56:57
This word was called the transfer of public services to the Internet.01:57:01
This is somewhat similar to our public services
website, but Kyiv has gone further and is building a state in a smartphone.01:57:07
Electronic documents were equated to paper ones.01:57:09
And even now, Ukrainians do not have to carry
their passport or driver's license with them.01:57:13
They can change their registration, order a certificate
of vaccination or open a firm in two clicks.01:57:18
As a result, services are provided faster, and most importantly,
the corruption component in the form of a human intermediary disappears.01:57:24
There was also an attempt to create
a separate tax zone for innovative business,01:57:29
which will attract IT companies to the country.01:57:33
It is to be launched already at the beginning of 2022.01:57:47
We also need to mention the campaign against the oligarchs.01:57:51
A separate law has been passed against them.01:57:53
We can say that Zelensky's promise,
to one degree or another, has been fulfilled.01:57:57
The president has full control over all branches
of power and uses it to put pressure on the oligarchs,01:58:01
like Akhmetov, who for many years retained an unreasonably
large influence on politics in the country.01:58:07
But in other areas, radical changes did not happen.01:58:10
The same digitalization is sometimes strongly criticized, noticing that the authorities
are playing with smartphones, and are not concerned with the well-being of people.01:58:19
The electoral legislation was not reformed,
but only modestly corrected a little bit.01:58:25
And not in the way people originally wanted.01:58:27
Without the introduction of open electoral lists,
which would allow citizens to choose their own candidates.01:58:32
Now the parties themselves determine the order of candidates on the list.01:58:35
As for the judicial reform, it has not started, and the medical one too.01:58:39
There is very slight progress in investigating high-profile
political cases, such as the murder of Pavel Sheremet.01:58:46
In relations with Russia, at the beginning,
some prospect was outlined, if not of thaw, then at least of dialogue.01:58:53
But later Zelensky started to resemble the light version of Poroshenko.01:58:58
He refuses to negotiate with uncontrolled territories,01:59:02
allows the military to use weapons,
including American javelins and Turkish drones,01:59:09
calls for sanctions against Russia or,
for example, holds an international conference,01:59:13
where the heads of many states gather
and discuss the annexation of Crimea.01:59:17
The president also imposed sanctions
against Viktor Medvedchuk,01:59:21
a citizen of Ukraine and at the same time
the closest person to Putin in the country.01:59:26
The increase in heating tariffs
hit the president's rating very hard.01:59:29
Instead of halving, they doubled.01:59:32
The current government, as they
sometimes say here in Ukraine,01:59:36
may be responsible for the failure of the vaccination campaign.01:59:38
Ukraine occupies the 4th place from the end
in Europe according to the estimates of the vaccinated population.01:59:43
However, these are all traces of the Soviet Union
and our post-totalitarian society.01:59:48
The situation is the same in Russia and Belarus.01:59:50
Although almost all the world's major vaccines are available in Ukraine.01:59:54
Here you can safely get vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna.01:59:58
The government is taking adequate measures to try
to increase the number of vaccinated, to persuade people to get vaccinated.02:00:06
For example, they pay a thousand hryvnias
to those who have been vaccinated.02:00:10
But this, unfortunately, does not lead this figure
to being suitable at least for the Central European,02:00:19
not to mention such advanced countries as Portugal or France.02:00:22
There were a lot of promises, like in any presidential company then.02:00:26
Some of them, as we see, are being implemented,
but there are difficulties with some.02:00:32
As the Ukrainians with whom I spoke here say,
the country as a whole is moving in the right direction,02:00:38
albeit not as fast as you would like.02:00:42
But the existing strong civil society does not allow
the authorities to stop or turn in the wrong direction,02:00:48
a society which defends the rights and freedoms
obtained with great effort.02:00:52
This is an indisputable achievement of the country,
its citizens, regardless of who is in power.02:01:12
In 2014, in the wake of the rise of patriotic feelings,
people, first on the Maidan, and then throughout the country02:01:19
they began to look for an understandable and
recognizable symbol of Ukrainian identity that would unite them.02:01:24
In addition to the anthem that the protesters sang almost
every evening, and the national flag of Ukraine,02:01:31
in the colors of which literally everything was painted,02:01:33
people began to refer to older attributes:02:01:36
folk wreaths of flowers and embroidered shirts,
traditional hand-embroidered shirts.02:01:43
A few months after the Euromaidan in many Ukrainian companies02:01:47
employees got a tradition to come to work
on Fridays in embroidered shirts.02:01:51
If earlier only politicians could be seen in embroidered shirts,02:01:55
then on special holidays, for example,
Independence Day of Ukraine,02:01:58
ordinary people began to appear in them,
and moreover, some wear them in everyday life.02:02:03
The deputies began to wear them
at the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada.02:02:07
All the well-known political figures of Ukraine
and presidents have campaign photos in vyshyvanki,02:02:12
including the current president Vladimir Zelensky.02:02:15
The holiday, Vyshyvanka Day, began to be celebrated
in the country on a large scale.02:02:19
In those years, millions of eyes around the world
were riveted to the events in Ukraine.02:02:23
And many people noticed and fell in love with bright,
beautiful embroidered shirts made of natural hand-embroidered fabrics.02:02:31
This interest has helped a large number of Ukrainian
designers to reach the international level.02:02:36
Stars and politicians around the world began
to wear embroidered shirts,02:02:40
both as a sign of support for events in Ukraine
and simply because they are bright, comfortable and slightly exotic.02:02:47
And Ukrainian designers began to shift traditional
national motifs to expensive fabrics.02:02:53
Including velvet and silk.02:02:55
Thus, offering world-class stars options that would meet their needs.02:03:02
Ukrainian vyshyvanki entered the fashion world.02:03:05
The two most famous designer
names are Vita Kin and Yulia Magdych.02:03:10
Their embroidered shirts became
a real sensation, they are still in demand.02:03:15
After Anna Dello Ruso, who is one of
the most influential women in the fashion industry,02:03:21
working for Vogue, appeared in an embroidered
shirt from Vita Kin, first on her Instagram,02:03:25
and then after the Gucci show at Milan Fashion Week in 2016,02:03:32
everyone began to wear them.02:03:35
Dita Von Teese, Queen of the Netherlands, Katie Holmes,
Reese Witherspoon and even Ksenia Sobchak and Miroslava Duma.02:03:43
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ellie Osborn, Elon Musk's mother
and Patricia Kaas were seen wearing embroidered shirts from Yulia Magdych.02:03:51
The latter personally chose the cult dress in a boutique in Kyiv.02:03:54
So by 2015, The Wall Street Journal named Vita Kin's
embroidered shirts the most popular summer dress of the year.02:04:02
In 2016, The Wall Street Journal recognized vyshyvanka as a general trend.02:04:07
And by 2017, Vogue learned this word in transliteration.02:04:11
Vyshyvanka now sounds the same in all languages.02:04:15
As a result, the fashion for making embroidered shirts went through several creations
of the Valentino fashion house and ended, of course, in the mass market.02:04:21
And Zara and all sorts of beach brands picked up this trend.02:04:25
Even now in the resort towns you will surely find things
reminiscent of the Ukrainian vyshyvanka trend.02:04:30
This fashion surge and the attention of the whole
world gave other talented designers an opportunity to advance,02:04:35
creating not only vyshyvanki.02:04:38
In addition to the already mentioned Yulia Magdych
and Vita Kin, Ksenia Schneider became known on the international market.02:04:43
She makes clothes by sewing them from old jeans.02:04:46
Thus, her brand falls into the trend for sustainability.02:04:50
Ruslan Baginsky - his hats are worn by Gigi Hadid,
Miley Cyrus and Madonna.02:04:55
Ivan Frolov - the dresses of his brand are
worn by Rihanna and Kim Kardashian.02:04:59
The Sleeper brand, a brand that has become
famous for pajamas, and a few others.02:05:04
Now fashion developments are an integral part of Ukrainian culture,02:05:08
and talented brands continue to appear in the country.02:05:11
True, without such vivid references to the traditional national dress.02:05:15
The Ukrainian answer to the global mass brands
H&M and Zara are the Must Have and JUL brands.02:05:21
Now fashion developments are an integral part of Ukrainian culture.02:05:26
Talented brands continue to appear in the country,
as there is a demand for a Ukrainian product.02:05:30
Among the Ukrainians themselves.02:05:32
Their unity, even in this matter, manifested itself
after the Euromaidan, as a desire to support their own people.02:05:52
We are returning to Moscow to talk here about
the role of Russia in the fate of Ukraine.02:05:58
Generally speaking, if you listen carefully to what Russian propagandists say,02:06:01
when they talk with pleasure about Ukrainian
socio-political and economic problems,02:06:05
then you can find a surprising message.02:06:08
The message will be is that it is thanks to us that Ukraine exists.02:06:12
This is a victory, this is a neighbor's punishment for independence.02:06:15
Evidence that the post-Soviet countries
are not capable of independence.02:06:20
Indeed, the Russian leadership has played
the most dramatic role in Ukraine's recent history.02:06:26
In 2012, when Ukraine hosted the European Football Championship,02:06:30
one of the points of a large-scale program of preparation for it02:06:34
was the reconstruction and construction
of a new terminal of the Donetsk airport.02:06:38
Then 5 games of the championship, including the quarter-finals
and semi-finals, were hosted by the new stadium Donbass Arena.02:06:45
Who would have imagined that Donetsk,
one of the capitals of the European Championship,02:06:50
a rich and prosperous industrial city in less
than two years would become a war zone.02:06:57
That the new Donetsk airport, which cost a fantastic $875 million,
would be wiped off the face of the earth.02:07:04
And this phrase itself would be associated not with championship,02:07:09
nor with the fans who come to watch football,02:07:11
not with transport infrastructure, but with bloody battles.02:07:15
Active battles for the airport began in June 2014,
just 24 months after the semi-finals.02:07:22
Just imagine this historical perspective.02:07:26
We all remember well, for example,
the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic,02:07:29
how the first data from China began to arrive
at the beginning of 2020, how the world rapidly began to close for quarantine.02:07:36
It's was almost yesterday.02:07:38
Imagine that in the same period the European city in which you lived,02:07:42
turns into a front line.02:07:44
That the airport from which they flew to rest in Dubai,
to work in Munich on the Lufthansa, lies in ruins.02:07:51
Having become accustomed to the phrase "war in Donbass",
we really underestimate the degree of tragedy and madness of what is happening.02:07:59
In the sense of precisely causing harm,
Russian propaganda is right. 02:08:04
The actions of the Russian leadership
proved to be extremely effective in this matter.02:08:08
Ukraine has lost part of the territory.02:08:10
And this part of the territories is now a constant source of instability.02:08:15
But only a completely crazy person can evaluate his success
by the degree of harm caused to a neighbor.02:08:21
Let's look at what Russia got as a result.02:08:24
Sanctions were imposed on Russia.02:08:27
Again, 10 years ago, the words sanctions and Russia
could not be found in the same sentence.02:08:32
Sanctions are about Iran, about North Korea, about Rogue states.02:08:36
Russia, with all the shortcomings of its regime,
was as far from this status as possible.02:08:41
But it ended up among the outcasts at one point.02:08:44
Sanctions are not an abstract threat.02:08:47
The sanctions themselves and the prospect
of new sanctions directly increase the risk of investing in Russia.02:08:52
They directly hinder economic growth.02:08:55
Sanctions, even if they are introduced as far as possible
from the industry where you are directly involved,02:09:00
make you poorer every day.02:09:02
Russia received the delegitimization of its own borders.02:09:05
A huge territory with 2 million people,
where no normal business is possible today.02:09:10
Where even the majority of Russian
state-owned companies cannot operate.02:09:14
We’re talking about Crimea.02:09:16
A territory which, despite all its enormous advantages,
is doomed to remain subsidized,02:09:20
able to survive only at the expense of the federal budget.02:09:23
How could one imagine that Moscow
and Kyiv would cease to be directly connected.02:09:29
That the easiest way to get from the Ukrainian capital
to the Russian one will be a transfer in Istanbul.02:09:35
And all this happened not for some complex historical reason.02:09:38
But because one particular individual
and his environment has no other goal,02:09:44
except for the maximum extension of his personal power in Russia.02:09:48
I want to finish my story with a slightly unusual example, look.02:09:52
In this video, the Crown Prince of Dubai drinks coffee
at the top of the world's largest Ferris wheel.02:09:59
It appeared in Dubai on the island of Bluewaters, in a new area,02:10:04
built by the world's best architects in such
a way that it would be most comfortable for a person to live and stay in it.02:10:11
Why am I showing you this in this video?02:10:14
Because even very strange societies that live according to Sharia law,02:10:18
violate all possible human rights, can turn to face people.02:10:24
Their leaders can set themselves the goal
not of world domination, not of geopolitical confrontation,02:10:29
but simply to improve the lives of people in their territory.02:10:33
It would be good for us in Russia to learn this.02:10:36
We are a world empire, and we ourselves are without pants.02:10:39
Under the banner of protecting the Russian population,
we can arrange a war in a neighboring state,02:10:44
and, in fact, destroy life in two large Russian-speaking cities.02:10:49
There now no one will drink coffee on the Ferris wheel.02:10:51
There is now an African-type military dictatorship, instead of modern cities,02:10:55
where until recently, in 2012,
the European Football Championship was held.02:11:00
And at the same time, no one here even thinks of defending the interests
of the Russian-speaking population in some Omsk or Pskov.02:11:08
People live in poverty and devastation, earn 2.5 times
less than, say, an Estonian doing the same thing.02:11:15
Estonia left the same USSR.02:11:17
The main thing that the state does for people is broadcasting
to them from TV about strategic superiority and geopolitical victories.02:11:26
A conversation about Ukraine is,
first of all, a conversation about us.02:11:30
About how we allowed such a government that,
instead of improving the lives of its citizens02:11:35
thinks about geopolitical adventures and restoring
the world as it was decades ago.02:11:41
This is pure, crystallized madness.02:11:43
And we, as well as our neighbors, are forced to pay dearly for it.02:11:48
Someday we will have such a power in Russia
that will take the current state of the world for granted02:11:53
and will improve our country.02:11:56
Such power will fulfill our huge potential,
which consists, first of all, of human capital.02:12:01
We have a very educated, urbanized population,
our people can do a lot of things,02:12:07
if they are not hindered, and even more so if you help.02:12:10
Russia has every reason to become a leader in the region.02:12:13
Not through military threats, but through better education,02:12:16
which will be significantly cheaper than the Western
one and in the familiar Russian language.02:12:21
Due to the best medicine, the best conditions for business development.02:12:25
We must become a country where a person feels protected,02:12:29
where an independent judiciary will protect one from arbitrariness,02:12:32
where one can safely develop business and raise children.02:12:36
We must have the most convenient and safe cities,
the highest quality urban environment,02:12:42
we must be friendly, logical and comfortable for visitors.02:12:46
And then our language will not be perceived as the language of the enemy.02:12:50
Then they will want to study Russian in schools
just as they want to study English now.02:12:54
Then Runet will again unite all the countries of the region.02:12:57
Then that same Russian world, not a propaganda one,
but the real Russian world will begin a peaceful and happy life.02:13:04
We will strengthen each other,
help each other live richer and better lives.02:13:09
Not because someone threatened to invade us,02:13:13
but simply because it will be the natural desire of people.02:13:17
But all this will happen only when there is
a human-oriented government in Russia.02:13:21
When the Russian president boasts not of tanks or missiles,02:13:26
but the best residential area or the highest Ferris wheel.02:13:31
That's what I wanted to say today on Ilya's channel.02:13:34
Hope you enjoyed it.02:13:35
Check out my channel, I rarely make such long videos,02:13:39
but every day there are shorter videos being released.02:13:42
About politics, economics, history, the current situation.02:13:45
If you are subscribed to me,
then I say goodbye to you until tomorrow.02:13:48
And if not, then please subscribe, goodbye!Description:
I also have a channel for my English-speaking audience! Subscribe now and watch my videos dubbed in English: https://vrlmv.com/HLJkPq Ukraine is the most similar country of the former USSR to Russia. Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are connected by a common past, close languages and people. But the present in our countries turned out to be different. Unlike Russia, Ukraine was able to maintain a competitive democracy - authoritarian projects did not succeed there. However, in economic terms, Ukraine lags behind Russia. Why did that happen? What is happening now with Crimea and Donbas? How did the events on the Maidan take place? And how does Ukraine live now? Today we will talk about the recent years in the life of Ukraine, its successes and failures, as well as highlight controversial and important issues. My friend Maxim Katz will do it for you. Support the channel: Patreon: https://vrlmv.com/4acT9L Support with crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/varlamov Timestamps: 00:00:00 The main news of the last weeks 00:01:47 Maxim Katz in Kyiv 00:03:50 History of Russia and Ukraine: the most Soviet republics of all Soviet 00:08:45 Favorite topic of Russian propaganda 00:15:16 Ukrainian 2000s without economic growth 00:20:51 A huge share of the state in economy 00:21:51 Lack of privatization 00:30:50 Ukrainian corruption 00:34:03 High taxes and complex tax system 00:38:03 Complex and confusing legislation 00:43:15 Euromaidan: how it happened 01:03:26 Ukraine after the change of power 01:11:54 What happened in Crimea in 2014 01:20:45 War in Donbas 01:27:17 What is the “Russian world”? 01:39:30 Reforms after the Maidan and their results 01:48:40 Vladimir Zelensky - President of Ukraine 02:01:10 Vyshyvanka fashion 02:05:44 The role of Russia in the fate of Ukraine
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