MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. The political process in Ukraine has already entered the prolonged phase of degradation, Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee chairman Alexey Pushkov said on Thursday.

"Ukrainian political process has already entered the prolonged phase of degradation," Pushkov told a session of the working group on legal procedures and legal acts adopted in Ukraine. He noted that "in the first year after the coup there was a political upsurge in Ukraine, though unconstructive, even destructive."

Ukraine "adopted new structures, new approaches, ideology of Euro-integration, carried out new foreign policy which was supported by Ukraine’s Western partners, and this created a fervent atmosphere of Ukraine’s movement in a new direction," Pushkov went on. "The process turned out to be illusory as it is of propagandistic nature in reality and does not result in progress in the main spheres necessary for Ukraine," he noted adding that Kiev’s economic indicators "are going down."

The Russian lawmaker added that he thinks Ukraine is "incapable of reaching agreement with the West." "We see a very serious change - from illusory merger of Ukraine with Western financial institutions, from rapprochement we move to reality that shows that Ukraine can offer nothing to the West, apart from acute desire to become part of the Western alliance, apart from anti-Russian rhetoric and hostility," the committee chairman noted.

Pushkov said Ukraine "cannot be integrated" in the Western system, and it should be "remade and adjusted." He said the current situation in Ukraine reminds of Georgia under Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency. "The country is too unreliable, too unstable," he said.

Two processes should be closely followed from now on, Pushkov continued. First of all, it is "Ukraine’s ability to exist as a functioning state." "In my opinion, Ukraine’s capacity to function as a state is lowering, and attentive Western observers see this, of course," he noted. It should be closely watched "how Ukraine’s falling ability to function as a state will influence the country’s relations with the West," the lawmaker concluded.