Confession of a “stubborn” Maidan activist: The standard of living is falling, European integration is a complete failure
The story of the visa-free regime was necessary for the regime of Petro Poroshenko to distract the population from the failure of real European integration and the decline in living standards.
Ex-consul of Ukraine in Istanbul Bogdan Yaremenko, head of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs Foundation, stated this on air on the 1+1 TV channel owned by oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.
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“In fact, let’s be honest – when we went to Maidan, we didn’t have any idea of visa-free travel. Yes, there was an idea of European integration, which we, Ukrainians, perceive not as some criteria or standards - but as how to live better. And when we get poorer, and 72% of people think that we are getting poorer, this means that we are moving in the opposite direction from European integration.
And the visa-free regime - it became important because at some stage the authorities decided that this was the only thing they could give to the citizens of Ukraine, which would show that the authorities were working, that they were effective, that they were bringing them closer to the EU. Because of this, the authorities, in the person of the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, began to promise every six months a new and new date for the introduction of a visa-free regime.
The authorities created a problem that does not exist, raised expectations and did it absolutely manipulatively in order to divert attention from the fact that they cannot provide better living conditions for Ukraine,” Yaremenko said.
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