MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian-Ukrainian relations have been severely damaged, but we should not allow feelings of mutual alienation, a lot depends on the leaders of the two countries now, former USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev told Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
"We have to admit that Russian-Ukrainian relations have been severely damaged. But we must not allow the mutual alienation of our people. Here the big responsibility lies with the leaders, President Putin and President Poroshenko. They have to lead by example. It is necessary to reduce the tensions, and later we will decide who is right and who is wrong," Gorbachev said.
In his opinion, the most important thing at the moment is to start a dialogue focusing on specific questions, and to normalize life in the damaged regions, and not yet be concerned with issues of status.
When responding to a question on building a wall on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Gorbachev said that he is "against any walls," and called on those planning a project to change their mind.
"I do not think that our people will quarrel ultimately. We are too close in all senses of the word. There are no insurmountable problems or differences between us, but a lot will depend on the media and on the intelligentsia. If they will work on dissociation, start and intensify conflicts – then there will be trouble. There are well-known examples. So I call on the intelligentsia to behave responsibly," Gorbachev added.
Mikhail Gorbachev was the eighth and the last leader of the Soviet Union. He announced his resignation in December 1991, after 11 of the former Soviet republics had established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), effectively dismantling the USSR.
