You're reading: Lutsenko’s memorable quotes about prison, friends, enemies and the future

While talking to journalists by the entrance of his Kyiv house on April 7, the day of his release, opposition politician Yuriy Lutsenko looked tired, happy and a bit perplexed. 

Later
Lutsenko said he realized his freedom only on the next day, when after 833 days
spent in prison he woke up in his home bed and saw his wife next to him and
heard his sons in the neighboring room.

“And then
this happiness came to me,” he said in an interview on TVi channel. 

The Kyiv
Post has selected the most interesting quotes from his almost hour-long
conversation.

About time

Yuriy
Lutsenko: “When you sit in a cell and feel how the sand of time spills (and
there is not much of it allotted to every person), then you realize that
children are growing up, your wife is waiting and you are losing these
opportunities. This is the hardest thing – this spilling of the golden sand of
time.”

About books in prison

“I’ve read
300 books – I had time and inspiration to think and talk. I don’t want to show
off, but I was sitting in a cell with (William) Shakespeare, with (Joseph)
Brodsky, with (Ken) Kesey, with (John) Fowles – the brilliant writers.”

About his prison cell in Mena colony for
convicted ex-cops

“I was
alone in nine square meters… Four rows of bars and many others. So, in the
neighboring cell, there was a murderer of three policemen.”

“A poor
bed: iron, very uncomfortable. No toilet facilities in fact, no window, walls
eaten by fungus … Prison is easier to bear for those who have something to
remember. I have very many things to remember – both good and bad. I had long
discussions with myself.”

About his wife Iryna

“This
person coming to me was giving me injections of optimism and confidence that we
will win. I’m an optimist, but sometimes it would be attacked by the blues. So,
Iryna’s work with me was the most important.”

About a letter from Polish dissident Adam
Michnik

“He
supported me a lot. Because he said: you are not the first one on this way, we
all have passed it and this test is very useful for you as a person. And he was
right.”

About Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the
European Union

“I truly
believe as a politician, as a citizen that there is nothing more important
today than this thing. If we sign this maybe not imperfect association, Ukraine
will be legally safe from being sucked into the black hole of our neighbor to
the north. If we don’t sign this association, we will be in this hole and this
will be a horrible catastrophe for Ukraine’s future.”

About Yulia Tymoshenko

“There are
no arguments why this step (being released from prison) can be done towards
Lutsenko, but can’t be done towards Tymoshenko… This step has to be done, and
it’s better earlier than later… Tymoshenko will not stay in prison, serving
some made up term. She will be released. And it’s always better to do it in the
beginning than when it will become a catastrophic thing for all”

“Yulia and
I, we are exchanging information. And I said, who comes first, he goes to visit
the other one. Of course it would be better if both were released at the same
time…”

About President Viktor Yanukovych

“I am
convinced the (issue of one person) is but a simple and insufficient response to
the problems of Ukraine. The president needs to be changed, but that’s not
enough to change Ukraine.”

About revenge

“I don’t
plan to settle scores with anybody. But I can’t guarantee that those who are
destroying the country and (tried to destroy) me will not be held
accountable.”  

“I
definitely believe that Renat Kuzmin must bear responsibility, the main
inquisitor of our country, filled with his own emptiness, who has become a
weapon against the political opposition in Ukraine.”

“I believe
that those issuing orders, which is today the presidential administration and
its chief, must also bear responsibility.” 

About health

“They did
not allow me to have a second planned surgery… I need to take care of my health
in the nearest time… Unfortunately I feel it’s not an issue of one month. On
the other hand I may joke – it’s not as bad as my enemies expect.”

About law enforcement bodies

“I’m sure
it’s impossible to change, reform the system of police, prosecution, courts.
The answer is napalm, and again napalm! It is called a Baltic variant – to
close this system, hire new staff from scratch. To hire new people with new
laws, new responsibilities, new rights. Believe me – it’s better to let them
capture a hundred bandits less, I hope God and victims forgive me, than to let
them put in jail thousands of innocents every year.”      

About the opposition

“I’m not
going to become the fourth leader of the opposition. Thanks God we have unity
of three (leaders), and it’s very important.”

“The
opposition has to do what it does: first of all not to allow the destruction of
parliament. But, if you allow me, I will bluntly say also: permanent blocking
is not quite right… I consider the opposition should propose a window of
tolerance. For example we are blocking, but on Wednesday all the (pro-european)
laws go through this window, and they are passed by the authorities and
opposition.”

About future plans

“The
opposition has to focus on parliamentary activity, and of course on the
streets. My considerate (wife) Iryna tells me about the need of treatment, I
want now to focus on helping, on coordinating those who are preparing a new
plan for the state. And after that I will come back to the place, which I have
never left – to the street, and I will be helping the leaders of the
opposition.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be
reached at [email protected]