Through his books, the writer Andrei Kurkov has discovered the many faces of Ukraine, a country that remains in the eye of the hurricane.
Through his books, the writer Andrei Kurkov has discovered the many faces of Ukraine, a country that remains in the eye of the hurricane.
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Asked what the European Union represents for countries that were under the Soviet Union regime, Kurkov details the semantic properties of the word 'Europe'.
"In Ukraine actually, the word Europe means life without corruption, with good social guarantees, with medical services, with good salaries and with rule of law. Maybe rule of law is the main thing because actually people feel that Ukraine will became a stable state when we will have rule of law"
Kurkov once said that Ukraine is 'like a pendulum that oscillates between East and West'. Does this mean Zelensky might be tempted to look towards Russia and Putin?
"No, no, no, he would not," Kurkov insists. "But he did not show his concrete programme. We collect his policy from his statements or the statements of his assistants. And so, if you judge the statements, we are moving still towards Europe. But of course the speed of this movement can be slowed, politically"
Watch the full interview in the player above