Boris Nemtsov, the opposition politician murdered in Russia, was absolutely right claiming that in case both Russian and Ukrainian governments  are truly democratic, there is a chance for peaceful coexistence and cooperation between the two countries.

This was the key message of Ostap Semerak, First Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Integration to the European Union (2014-2016), at the 17th Annual Kyiv Security Forum “UA: UNITE AGAIN TO DEFEAT THE GLOBAL AGGRESSOR”, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation “Open Ukraine”.

“I fully share the statement about the requirement to defeat Putin’s Russia. Boris Nemtsov once told me that only when the Russian and Ukrainian governments become fully democratic there would be the only chance for peaceful coexistence and cooperation between the two countries. And this is true not only about Ukraine and Russia, but about Europe,” he emphasized.

According to Ostap Semerak, if we analyze the last 35 years of post-Soviet history and relations between Ukraine and Russia, we can clearly see that this current war is not the first one. The very first crisis, the so-called “Crimean” one, began back in 1991 and resulted in the Black Sea Fleet segmentation.

“Unfortunately, back then Russia already nurtured plans of a much larger scale,” he added.

At the same time, the politician noted that it is imperative today to prevail in the war against undemocratic Russia: “Russia can cooperate with Europe only if it is ruled by a democratic government,” Ostap Semerak concluded.

The Kyiv Security Forum, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Open Ukraine Foundation, is the main platform in Ukraine to discuss issues of war and peace, national and global security.