Andrukhovych made the remarks during a conversation with NV Radio editor in chief Olexiy Tarasov at the Book Country literary festival.
“I consider their absolute weakness to be what is called arrogance and superiority,” Andrukhovych said.
“None of the other global cultures has that. Although one might ask whether Russian culture is global, after Soviet people spread across all continents, I think you can already speak of it as global. Still, carriers of Spanish- and English-speaking cultures went through a school of saying goodbye to empires and mental decolonization. They rejected colonizer’s thinking. Russia is the only empire that never repented for being an empire.”
He added that Russia has never apologized and that, within its own system, it has always presented its wars as justified and “fair.”
“They have stayed in the old world — the time when it was considered a virtue to destroy others, to conquer their territories, to rape their women,” the writer said.
“They are still there, as we see in every move they make in
this war. To embody the past is, in my view, to condemn yourself to historical
defeat.”