Words of wisdom

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in his article “Russia and Ukraine: Life by New Rules” published in the Monday issue of the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily on Monday:

“Only within one year Ukraine plunged into the split of society, slum...p in economy, outburst of radicalism including sincere flaunting of Nazi symbols, as well as into combat actions on their own land against their own compatriots. Only one year passed but only memories were now left from the close to us country, with which we were friends, conducted trade and where we traveled to spend vacations and visit relatives.”

“We in Russia are concerned with these events in Ukraine as with our own pain, help even those, who accept our support with a smirk and continue living under the moto ‘Ukraine is not Russia’. I sincerely regret that representatives of the Ukrainian elite failed to neither propose nor implement any other strategic program for the country’s development. The most difficult times for the Ukrainian economy are yet to come.”

“No matter what insinuations are addressed at us, we have no right to yield to provocations and have no right to forget that on the other side of the border live people close to us in spirit, culture, mentality, people whose fate will be always important to us.”

“More than 4 mln Ukrainians have arrived in Russia since the 1st of January, 2014. Russia is their second home; they have relatives, friends and work here. As it is always said: the East of Ukraine works for Russia, the West of Ukraine works in Russia. For many Ukrainians, work in Russia is the only source of subsistence, but only thanks to Ukraine’s actions, Russia will have to cut off this source. From the 1st of January, 2015, Ukrainian workers will not get a job without ‘work patents’ in Russia. We will also be stricter about the duration of stay in our country – 90 days within half a year. If earlier it was possible to go outside of Russia and come back again, and it was enough in order to work here for next three months, but now those Ukrainian “travelers” with no work patent will be treated by our border guards with utmost attention. Ukraine is running the risk to lose 11-13 billion U.S. dollars if its citizens are banned to work in Russia. I would like to ask the Kiev authorities: Is this new load on the state budget taken into consideration, not to mention the budgets of the Ukrainian families?”

“We are not going to support Ukraine's economy anymore. It is a burden for us. And to be honest, we are tired of it. Our countries are neighbours and we cannot avoid cooperation. But now this cooperation will be purely 'European', so to speak – rational and pragmatic. Russia will set aside “family sentiments” in organizing relations with Ukraine under new conditions.”

Full article by Dmitry Medvedev in the Russian language: http://www.ng.ru/ideas/2014-12-15/1_medvedev.html

Source: Truth about situation in Ukraine 15-12-2014