[…]

Frankfurter Rundschau: You conjured up Yanukovych in 2003 as the Ukranian Putin. Will the Russian model [governance] take root in Ukraine?

Yuriy Andrukhovych: Putin is smart, smart, athletic, sexy. Yanukovych is a parody of Putin. But he wants to copy the ideas of the power vertical and the so-called sovereign democracy. Freedom of speech exists in Russia only on the web. The judiciary has been subjugated completely.

FR: What has changed since the takeover of the "Blue" in early 2010?

YA: Sometimes I feel like I was in another country. Maybe I’m paranoid, but my city of Ivano-Frankivsk I feel sad and dirtier than a year ago. I am a witness to disintegration. The government is increasingly cynical and corrupt. Pressure exerted during the [October, 2010] local elections on the local electoral commission, was massive. I fear that Ukraine is on its way to becoming a "failed state" to be, can not perform its functions.

FR: Were you surprised by the speed with which the restoration?

YA: Yes, I am with a regime à la Kuchma, but it’s worse than I expected. Yanukovych and his supporters have no connection to Ukraine. The country is only a tool for them to get even richer and more powerful. I was also surprised the massive attacks on the Ukrainian culture, language and identity. The pressure on local authorities is enormous, which means brutal.

[…]

Read the entire German-language interview here.