MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Ukraine has no chances to be admitted in the European Union in the decades to come, Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Federation Council, or upper house of the Russian parliament, said in an interview with the Izvestia daily on Tuesday.
"You can take it from me, Ukraine will not be granted the European Union membership in the immediate foreseeable future. It is a carrot offered as a bait, but it is unreachable," she said.
Matviyenko said it was highly improbable that a country in such a dramatic economic and financial state with a population of 40 million could be let into the European Union. "Let us not forget about problems the European Union is facing itself. So, Ukraine has no chances to find itself there in the next few decades," she said.
She noted that Ukraine "could have launched the process of European integration bringing its legislation closer to the European standards, fighting corruption, building efficient state institutions and civil society institutes, directing its efforts towards implementation of national interests." "But the nation has been misled by those who seized power illegally, by force," she said. "At first, people believed they would be soon admitted to the European Union, that they would have European salaries, high social guarantees, visa-free entry to Europe overnight. They voted for it but they have been misled".
"Ukraine to be compelled to put up with loss of Crimea"
Ukraine will have to reconcile to the loss of Crimea, since the peninsular region’s reunification with Russia rests firmly on the will of the peoples living there, Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with Izvestia daily."I think Ukraine has already realized Crimea won’t return into its realm," she said. "It will have to reconcile itself with the situation, since it rests on the will of peoples living in Crimea and Sevastopol."
Matviyenko said neither leaders nor ordinary people of Crimea "regret a little bit (about reunification of the region with Russia - TASS); on the contrary, they are absolutely happy that their dream of a return to Russia has materialized."
Over the year and a half after reunification with Russia, "the region has fully adapted to the Russian legislation and all the Russian social norms in terms of wages and pensions have been introduced there," she said.
"As the Crimeans look at what’s happening in southeastern Ukraine, they realize their plight would have been still far harsher hadn’t they reunified with Russia," Matviyenko said. "The manslaughter there would have been many times bloodier than in Donbass or the Lugansk region."
"There’s only one thing I’d like to say with regard to Crimea - ladies and gentlemen, please relax, the issue has been firmly settled and Crimea is part of Russia," she said.