However, a diverse
group of Ukrainian experts decided to end the drift and started their
independent visionary project. They called themselves the Nestor
Group, and today, after three years of work, they present their first
strategy for Ukraine.
“When we started
early 2012, there were more questions than answers, and when we
started to answer the questions, even more questions came up. We were
drowning in uncertainty,” says Myroslav Marynovych, a former GULAG
prisoner, who is now a vice president at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.
His colleague,
another vice president of the same university and one of the top
experts on education in Ukraine, Pavlo Khobzey adds: “The most
basic notions lacked clear definitions. What is Ukraine? Who is
Ukrainian? What makes an integral society out of Ukrainians?”
These questions
became increasingly acute after first the Granit Revolution in 1990
and then the Orange Revolution in 2004 failed to bring sustainable
change. By 2012 experts of the Nestor Group felt that the tide is
changing, and soon there will be another attempt at transformation.
“We could feel
that (former
President Viktor) Yanukovych’s time is running up. But at the time
we neither could predict how exactly he’d fall, nor what would come
to replace it. We felt we needed to fill the void of vision and get
ready for the window of opportunity,” says Vladimir Dubrovsky, an
institutional economist from CASE Ukraine, a think tank.
The Nestor Group got
together, inspired by the success of their earlier work together. The
Univska Group, the previous incarnation of this group in Lviv,
worked successfully from 2007 to 2011 and produced a long-term vision
for the city, which introduced the discourse of the future in the
city.
“More opinion
leaders, especially in local business communities, start thinking
long; they want to know what will happen to their companies, families
and ultimately the society. It was very different just a few years
ago,” says Volodymyr Vorobey, a partner at PPV Knowledge Networks,
an economic development agency, who was a member Univska group as
well.
Viktoriya Bryndza, a
German-educated sociologist worked to customize the methodology:
“Except for Univska, there was little Ukraine-specific experience
on how one connects diverse experts with different competencies and
weighty egos into a unified effort. Intellectually this was a
challenge”.
“We would meet in
Kyiv or Lviv almost every month for half a day. Then two or three
times a year we would come together somewhere for a few days to focus
on issues. We also had three trips to Prague, covered by Czech
foreign ministry. There we could work for 3-4 days each time in
tranquility. That is where a breakthrough would usually happen,”
says Bohdan Pankevych, honorary consul of the Netherlands in Lviv,
and a former advisor to the mayor.
Yaroslav Hrytsak, a
Ukrainian historian, who taught at Columbia, Harvard, CEU and was
dean of History at the Ukrainian Catholic University looks more like
a rock-star in his 50s. He was the one who introduced the concept of
values into Ukrainian studies, which had previously been mostly
interpreted though institutions.
“Culture matters,
as well as institutions do. But as there was little research
available on culture, Ukraine was mostly interpreted institutionally
in the 90s, which formed a perception of a Russia-like entity. We had
to go back to the foundations, and reconstruct our understanding of
what Ukraine is – and what it is not,” Hrytsak says.
“If there was a
prize for the financier, who heard the most about values and cultural
stuff – I’d be eligible,” jokes Oleh Rybachuk, a former banker
and President Viktor Yushchenko’s chief of staff, who now chairs
CentreUA, a top advocacy organization in Ukraine. “Leadership is a
swearword, and insecurity rules. The country is basically run from
the grass roots. It’s not an easy thing to explain to someone in the
EU that they’ve been talking to the wrong guys all along.”
“It turns out,
we’re much more Southern European, but without the benefit of the
climate,” laughs Alexandra Baklanova, a strategist, who was born
in Sevastopol, grew up in Luhansk, and used to work for SONY European
HQ in Germany.
It is her,
as well as Yevgeniy Ihkelzon, a religious
scientist from Donetsk, an ethnic Jew and a Buddist activist, who
lives between Ukraine, Malaysia, and India; and Ihor Gut, head of
DYB business club, a marketologist with a PhD in behavioral studies,
from a very competitive business environment of Dnipropetrovsk, who
provide insights into the Eastern Ukrainian dynamics.
“Decentralization,
federalization, we had to go through all these things meticulously
until we had a crystal clear understanding of what is acceptable in
Ukraine’s case. When the issues sprung up – we already had these
things well reflected,” says Ihor Koliushko, a constitutional
lawyer, head of Centre for Political and Legal Reforms, and a former
parliament member who authored many reformist bills related to
governance. Some of them passed, others stalled.
Oksana Forostyna,
executive editor of Krytyka Journal notes how “completely new
senses penetrate Ukraine, and we have to understand where they are
rooted and why some prevail over others. Middle class played a
crucial role in EuroMaidan, but it is very fragile, the challenges
are plenty, and we have to take it all into account with our
long-term vision. Loss of Crimea and part of Donetsk and Luhansk
regions changed the political landscape, challenged the old
paternalistic agenda, but the political elites have difficulty
following such rapid shifts. As the gap is widening it will be a
challenge to reintegrate.”
“The war
with Russia is an indirect result of bad Ukrainian habits. With one
of the highest in the world energy consumption rates, Ukraine’s
energy dependence on Russia is an unnecessary burden. But it’s not
just the mentality, the state governance is to blame as well. We
can’t insulate buildings, we can’t pay the bills, and we can’t
lose independence,” says Svyatoslav Pavliuk, a top expert on energy-saving.
“Eventually we’ll
have to respond to two key questions. First, what kind of Ukraine is
needed in the long term interest of the Ukrainian citizens, even if
they cannot articulate it clearly?” says Orest Drul, head of
Western Analytical Group and editor of zbruch.eu, a thought provoking
online media outlet. “And second, what can we bring to the table in
the EU, the West and elsewhere? What kind of value can Ukraine
produce that the rest of the world could appreciate and be willing to
trade, protect and back up when needed?” asks Oleksandr Sushko, a
research director of Institute of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, a think
tank.
The document we’re
presenting is a conceptual framework. It clearly defines priorities
and sets agenda for further work. This is as far as we could get in
three years, with sporadic academic and research backing and several
hundred hours of expert volunteer work. To continue, we’ll have to
upgrade ourselves. But first, we want to hear the feedback on what we
have by now. Even if we kick-start a discussion that never existed in
Ukraine before, on the nation’s sustainable future development, we
will consider it a good result.
Read the Nestor Group vision for Ukraine here.
Yevhen Hlibovytsky is a former political journalist and partner at Pro.mova, a business consulting company.
