BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
The electoral crisis in Ukraine has been caused by a deeply ingrained split between the country's Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking peoples, says respected Russian professor Ivan Kurilla.
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KURILLA |
"There is a big regional and ethnic split," Kurilla says. "Although Ukraine is an independent country, Russia still has a big involvement. I hope Ukraine will survive this crisis without bloodshed or being split in two."
The Volgograd State University professor addressed the subject Wednesday morning while talking to Laurentian students about Russian politics and Russian-North American relations.
He also presented a public lecture at Laurentian Wednesday night.
Kurilla's lecture also touched on aspects of North American politics that could affect our country?s relationship with Russians, including missile defence.
The way things are right now, relations would probably remain unchanged if Canadians joined with Americans in creating the defence shield, he says.
"I don't think it will change anything," says Kurilla, who is currently writing a book about the history of Russian-American relations.
"In general, Russia has opposed missile defence. But since Putin came to power, he hasn't actively opposed American policies. So I don?t think it will affect Canada especially."
However, Kurilla himself doesn't think missile defence is a good idea.
"It sounds like a threat to everybody else who is not under the shield. It?s a decrease in the level of security, not an increase."
During the Soviet era, the Russians generally lumped the United States and Canada together as corrupt, dangerous countries.
But these days, Russians are becoming very interested in Canada because there are many similarities between the two nations, says Kurilla.
"Canada looks very similar to Russia, and that's why it's interesting to Russians . . . it's another big country with a big northern territory," he says.
Both countries have economies dependent on natural resources, and we are actually neighbours over the North Pole. Because of these similarities, the Russian people should actually be looking to Canada?s political system as a model, he says.
"Both Russia and Canada are multinational countries," says Kurilla. "Russia is changing and re-shaping its federal system. It's always interested in the Canadian example. The Canadian example is more interesting than the United States . . . you have all this federal reflection of ethnicities."
Like Canada, Russia also has a lot of Aboriginal peoples living in its northern territories. Aboriginal peoples in Siberia are at risk of cultural
assimilation, just like their Canadian counterparts, he says.
While the Russian opinion of Canada has improved in recent years, Americans haven't faired nearly so well.
"By the end of the 1990s, the public attitude towards Americans became very bad, and during the Bush administration, it's become the lowest it's
been in maybe my lifetime. During the Soviet time, the public attitude towards them was actually much better," says Kurilla.
