Ruslana Lyzhychko, the Ukrainian singer better known simply as Ruslana, was one of the loudest voices of the EuroMaidan Revolution. More than two years after the end of the uprising that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power, she’s still keeping a close eye on the nation’s politics.
She doesn’t like what she sees.
“The language of the current politicians is correct, but their actions are absolutely not,” Ruslana told the Kyiv Post at parliament on April 12. The singer was there to support lawmakers who are calling for more protections for Ukraine’s forestland.
She says she has not been disappointed by the crop of politicians that came to power after the revolution. But that’s only because she didn’t expect much from them in the first place.
“When the EuroMaidan started, my husband and I could tell what the dynamic would be for the following events,” she said. “We went through the Revolution on Granite, which won independence for Ukraine (in 1990), and the Orange Revolution (in 2004), and so I knew what to expect.”
Ruslana said she expected that the current authorities would not “be strong enough to change” the country.
“These are people of the old generation, of the old type of thinking, of the old connections, and of the old system,” she said. “The authorities aren’t listening to us, the Ukrainians, and they’re not hearing us.”
Ruslana says she might start trusting Ukrainian leaders more when they stop making deals behind the nation’s back, so that “we know we are not just being handed an already-made decision.”
“It’s like they’re saying: ‘Look – eat what we made for you, and don’t complain, eat the soup as it is, although it lacks salt, oil, and, yes, water – the country’s at war, you know,’” Ruslana said. “They should start with the prosecutor general. If they finally proposed some person from outside of their system, I might change my mind.”
Ruslana said she had been disappointed with society’s failure to “dictate its terms to the authorities.”
“We are not able to honor the memory of those who gave their lives to break the state system, turning it to our own benefit,” Ruslana said.
More than 100 protesters were killed during the EuroMaidan revolution, and more than 50 are still listed as missing.
After the Orange Revolution, Ruslana herself won a seat in Ukraine’s parliament. She entered the Verkhovna Rada in June, 2006, on list of Nasha Ukraina (Our Ukraine), the party of the then president, Viktor Yushchenko. But she resigned as a lawmaker just a year later, saying the parliament was ineffective. Yushchenko dissolved the Verkhovna Rada in September 2007.
Speaking in the lobby of parliament, Ruslana said she didn’t miss being a lawmaker.
“I don’t belong here,” Ruslana said. “I can do more from the stage.”
