MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The real time frame for Ukraine’s possible entry into the EU is the 2050s, and the economic and political bloc could break up before then, former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says.
“We, the children of the 1970s, all waited for the onset of communism. Alas, it did not happen. The Soviet Union collapsed, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was liquidated,” Medvedev, who joined the party in university and left in 1991, wrote on his Telegram page on Sunday.
“The situation related to the promised onset of global happiness in the USSR reminds me of the incantations made by the European Commission regarding Ukraine’s EU candidacy,” he stated.
“They have been promised. Exactly, promised. And the promise was made only to [Ukraine], and not even Georgia (I would be offended in their place, not even mentioning Turkey),” Medvedev added, recalling Ankara’s application to become a member of the European Economic Community - the EU’s predecessor, all the way back in 1987.
“They promised, but with conditions. Ukraine is supposed to become better, cleaner, less corrupt, more developed, enlightened, smarter. [EC chief] Aunt Usrula [von der Leyen] even said that Ukrainians are dying for EU membership,” the former president, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote.
“After that it will be like with the construction of communism. The date hasn’t been set after all. But there are many unverifiable, abstract conditions. Their objective verification is impossible. They will be checked for decades, and by new generations of EU leaders. Therefore, the real term is the middle of the century, not earlier,” Medvedev continued.
In the meantime, he suggested, the fate of the USSR could also befall the EU.
“It’s possible that communism could have arrived by now had the USSR been preserved. But the union, unfortunately, died. Do you understand what I’m hinting at? P.S. Perhaps (knock on wood) the EU disappears by this time? It’s frightening to think what a scandal this would be, given the sacrifices that have been made on the altar of joining the EU, and what a deception it would be of the expectations of the unfortunate Ukrainians,” Medvedev concluded.