Oleksiy Arestovich, advisor to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, proposed to rename the country and "take away" the "Russians" brand from Russia.

Such ideas were voiced by the speaker of the Ukrainian delegation in the trilateral contact group on Donbass during an interview with journalist Roman Tsimbalyuk.

“We need to take away the brand“ Russians ”from them in the end ... Rus is us ... Rus, Rusyns, as we were also called ... I would change the name of the state.

I would call us Rus-Ukraine, I would make a double name, ”Arestovich said.

In his opinion, the "interception" of the historical heritage of Kievan Rus is of much greater importance for the country than "the presence of tanks and aircraft."

Russia, however, can claim it "with a very big stretch," the politician said.

According to him, Moscow allegedly has to spend $ 4 billion annually "on Russia Today, on propaganda and everything else" in order to maintain the image of the successor to Russia.

However, Arestovich is sure that the establishment of the "Crimean Platform" and the adoption of the law on the celebration of the Day of Ukrainian Statehood on the Day of the Baptism of Rus' dealt a "major civilizational blow" to Moscow on the diplomatic front.

  • Oleksiy Arestovich, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Evgen Kotenkoukrinform / Keystone Press Agency

At the same time, the other day on the air of the Ukraine 24 TV channel, Arestovich stated that it is not profitable for Kiev to close the border with Russia and break off trade relations with it.

“Russia is our fifth largest trading partner.

And the world is arranged in a complex way: even if we close all this now, introduce martial law, as they say, it is always in politics, and in life the question should arise: okay, do we do what?

What are the consequences? "

He called the practice of trade between conflicting states not surprising, stressing that a break in relations can have many negative consequences for society and the state.

As an example of such a pragmatic approach, he cited the preservation of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war.

Council from Russia

Commenting on Arestovich's initiative to rename Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted: “Firstly, it's great that we now understand what they are working on in Zelensky’s office.

And then, I will not hide, there were questions.

Secondly, I give - Ukrus.

Don't thank. "

In turn, Sergei Tsekov, a member of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs from the Republic of Crimea, called such a proposal "a completely primitive attempt to solve the most complex internal problems that exist in Ukraine."

“They understand the inferiority of the Ukrainian state as such.

They are trying to fix something with such statements, "RT said in a comment.

In his opinion, in order to claim the status of an advanced country, Ukraine first needs to restore a common history, make Russian along with the Ukrainian state language and completely restore relations with Russia.

“Then Ukraine will really have a chance to become a democratic, highly developed state,” he stressed.

  • Federation Council of the Russian Federation

  • © RIA Novosti / Vladimir Fedorenko

Claims to Russia

Experts note that recently in Ukraine, attempts to rewrite history have become more frequent.

So, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking on August 24 at the military parade on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the country's independence, announced the introduction of a new holiday - the Day of Ukrainian Statehood, which will be celebrated on the day of the Baptism of Rus (July 28).

Prior to that, the president said that the official and "historically fair" name of this date is "Day of the Baptism of Kievan Rus - Ukraine."

“In the text of the corresponding decree of the President of Ukraine, there is a dash between them.

And it's not just a punctuation mark.

This is a sign that Ukraine is the heir to one of the most powerful states of medieval Europe, ”Zelensky said.

According to him, Kievan Rus is the mother of Ukrainian history, and 24 regions of the country and Crimea are “her own children” and heirs.

“And cousins ​​and very distant relatives do not need to encroach on her inheritance.

And try to prove your involvement in history for thousands of years and thousands of events, being from the places where it happened, thousands of kilometers away, ”he said.

In mid-July, Zelensky also stated that the Russian language "is not the property of Russia."

The topic of renaming in early August was also raised by the Ukrainian writer Larisa Nitsoy.

On the air of the Ukraine 24 TV channel, she expressed the opinion that the Russian language should be called “Moscow”, since this is supposedly more historically true.

“I call this language the Moscow language, and this is the correct name, and I urge everyone to call Russia Muscovy, their historical name, since the Russian language is our name, we are“ stupid, ”she said.

"Making fun of themselves"

In the ruling circles of Kiev, the claims of a number of Ukrainian politicians and social activists are called far from reality.

Thus, a RT source in the Batkivshchyna party said that it was not in Ukraine's interests to constantly emphasize its isolation from Russia.

“Firstly, because Ukraine consumes Russian gas, which is stubbornly called European.

Secondly, because Russia is a large sales market for Ukrainian manufacturing companies.

And thirdly, many Ukrainians live and work in Russia, we have many cultural ties, "- explained the representative of" Batkivshchyna ".

However, so far, officials are more successful in "making a laughing stock of themselves with such initiatives," the RT interlocutor complained.

Meanwhile, a source in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine noted that the government opposes any changes in the name of the country: “So far, this idea is viewed with suspicion.

But in our country they are ready to take strange steps to further emphasize their remoteness from Russia.

They are often completely stupid. "

The country's Ministry of Culture even called the idea of ​​"Rus-Ukraine" absurd, expressing the opinion that then it would be better to call the country "Non-Russia" right away.

“It seems to me that such initiatives are contrary to common sense.

Can you imagine a foreigner who will be told that there is a "Russian-Russian war" going on in eastern Ukraine?

He'll think we're out of our minds here.

I am not even talking about the mass of problems that the population will face.

Let's start with the fact that all documents - from internal to foreign passports - may be invalid, "said the interlocutor of RT in the department.

In turn, experts believe that claims to belonging to the heritage of Russia speak of Kiev's attempts to get away from the nationalist “heroes” who have been erected on a pedestal, whose history testifies to the failure of their ideas.

“It began to dawn on politicians that when Ukraine begins, instead of its real heroes, who became such with Russia, to propagandize supposedly heroes like Bandera and Shukhevych, then its history of joint victories with Russia turns into a history of defeats,” he explained in a conversation with RT Deputy Director of the Institute of CIS Countries Vladimir Zharikhin.

He believes that in this regard, the ruling forces are looking for a way out of the current situation: "Now they are trying to join the victories that were won by the" big Russia ", which included the current Ukraine."

Historians point out that the idea of ​​"Rus-Ukraine" is not new and has been discussed by the Ukrainian elite for a long time.

According to the deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, Vladimir Shapovalov, Kiev is facing a dilemma.

“This is a difficult historical choice: the desire, on the one hand, to have a long history, on the other hand, to separate this history from Russian history.

This leads to such absolutely unscientific, divorced from reality solutions, in which nothing better is found than to come up with such a complex name as Rus-Ukraine, "the expert said.

He stressed that such an idea has nothing to do with the historical truth and the historical past.

  • President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky

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Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, adheres to the same point of view.

According to him, mass Ukrainian identity is a phenomenon of the 20th century and the result of the Ukrainianization policy, which was mainly pursued by the USSR.

“As a result, a popular historical myth appeared that allegedly Muscovites did not consider themselves Russian before, and only after Peter the Great or Catherine the Great they decided to take away their historical identity from the Ukrainians and instill it in themselves.

However, this absolutely does not correspond to history and historical facts, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.

He added that if it suddenly comes to the implementation of initiatives to rename the country and implant ideas about a link between Russia and Ukraine, then this will be more a step towards reverse integration with Russia than separation from it, because Moscow is not going to revise history. ...

At the same time, Nemensky positively assessed the desire of Ukrainian politicians to return to historical sources to identify state consciousness.

“The fact that he (Arestovich -

RT

) made this proposal is a positive moment, because it once again reminds the Ukrainian public that it is historically Russian,” the expert summed up.