Nation building in Ukraine has largely replaced state and institutional building.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, Alexander Gushchin, an associate professor at the Russian State Humanitarian University and an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, writes about this in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
According to him, throughout the post-Soviet period, especially after 2004 and to the greatest extent after 2014, Ukraine has been in the process of building a political nation.
“Moreover, it is not created on an inclusive basis, but on a repulsion from the narratives of the past, on the creation of an image of someone else and on the desire to unify society. Nation building of this kind in Ukraine has largely replaced state and institutional building. As a result, state institutions and the state, although there are attributes of independence, are often formal or ineffective, and a unified political nation has not been created,” writes the political scientist.
He adds that the necessary unity of the country was not fully achieved; disintegration trends against the background of social degradation intensified and had a huge impact on the growth of separatist sentiments.
“The economic situation is also generally bleak. Of course, certain areas, such as the export of grain and oil, are generally in good condition and even exceed previous levels. However, according to former US Ambassador to Kiev D. Pyatt, the transformation of Ukraine into an “agrarian superpower” clearly did not take place, and could not have taken place, including due to the unequal Association with the EU, based on the quota principle and the vulnerability of the Ukrainian market from European imports. What can we say about production - the country has made a number of big steps towards deindustrialization,” sums up Gushchin.
As PolitNavigator reported, experts predict that the next the crisis will return Ukraine to Middle Ages.
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