#Наталья Влащенко | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

summeroffice · 2 years ago

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Interview with Наталья Влащенко

0:15 Mykhailo, the last time I saw you was before the war. I want to ask you, how do you feel? It's definitely not easier. It is not easier, on the contrary, much more difficult. Because people want to have a planning horizon certain. They want to understand when and how it will be finalised. Then they will be able to plan their personal lives specifically. Today, there's uncertainty and it is very difficult because your relatives may be on one side or another or abroad. Well, if they left, I mean wives, children and so on. Or they may be on the front line where the situation is very difficult. On the other side you don't understand if you will be able to make a career. What will happen to Ukraine?

14:19 Mykhailo, how to make it so that intelligence would sell better than the feeling of hate? Generation. First, second, third. It's a change that happens gradually. It is when people do not live by annual plans or for a month, it is when the institute of reputation appears and when the strategy for 10, 15, 20 years appears who we want to be.

32:14 It is very important to understand that if you want to speak on behalf of Ukraine, you must be deep in topic. You must create the impression of a highly intellectual elite in Ukraine. You have to create such an impression that they want to communicate with you, they want to believe you, and most importantly, they want to have a partnership or even a friendly relationship with you.

35:04 Power is about responsibility for ideas and about the operational capacity of ideas. Can you just say we can do something or do you really see the logistical possibility to do it?

39:53 If you will invest in your intelligence, in the development of your mind, then you will be able to control the processes and make the right choice, and when the right emotions, which should be given by parents, will be added to the mind, the cold mind.

40:14 The Mykhailo Podolyak that first came to the Office of the President, and the Mykhailo Podolyak that is now sitting before me, what's the difference between them? We change every day. If a person wants to develop…

How have you changed [There are no subtitles; I don't really understand]? Tougher probably and more sensitive on the other hand to [make?] human right actions. I believe that we have to speak right here and now right or wrong and not mask our real emotions. This is the greatest freedom for you if you can allow yourself to be who you are and give characteristics to other people and they will accept it because they will understand that you are objective. And today I can afford it because I saw many people in extremely extreme conditions and saw who they are. And many of them shocked me with the quality of their human qualities.

41:53 You are very lucky. It is a stellar time because you are so lucky to have seen many people who are the stars of world politics. Not only the president of Ukraine, not only Yermak but also world leaders. Who impressed you the most? Let's not talk about Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team but about those people whom you saw for the first time in Ukraine.

I was much more impressed by simple people. Our people. You know, to come here for a day or two and say something… Many of my friends from Lithuania or Estonia or Latvia take a very strong pro-Ukrainian position, they say a lot but they are in Lithuania and in Estonia and in Latvia but the people who were here in the first hours of the war are impressive. They made certain decisions for themselves to go to the east of Ukraine or to the north of Ukraine or to the south of Ukraine and actively work. Only a few know the names of these people. They are not stars of the world media but they are the real stars of this stage of the historical development of humanity because everything depends on such people.

I will tell you that I called many people in the first days and people picked up the phone 24 hours a day, they took on many more functions, including in this building, people who held the position of department directors or consultants there even, they took on many functions that are not theirs and performed them and none of them ever today says that look, we're heroes. No, they continue to perform certain functions. This is for me, these people are all…

You know, when I came here on the first day. Well, when the large-scale invasion had already begun on the 24th. It was in the morning, around 6:30, I was a little slow because everyone was leaving the city and it was difficult to leave in the oncoming lane, they were also driving. I had no doubt what kind of president I'll see, knowing his psychology, but I had certain doubts about whether there were many such people. There are so many people like this in Ukraine, and this is the key to this war. And if I have to write a book about them, I will definitely write it.

Because to write about Boris Johnson, for example, he is public and everyone has seen it and everyone has seen the pattern of his behaviour, everyone has seen what he says, or about Andrzej Duda, for example, and so on, it's all obvious, or about Emmanuel Macron. We can talk about it because it's public and everyone saw it. These people are famous. But many more opportunities for Ukraine were given by those people about whom few people know. There is a need to write about them, how they made decisions, how they were ready to go there or to another place, how did they take responsibility personally, I especially emphasise the first three months of the war.

45:32 Did you have a few minutes a day for this place? [I can't understand what it may mean] It's not my type. My type is quite pragmatic, I really like it when they say that you can recruit these people for money. I really like it, it's just that people don't know the type of my character at all. It is we who can recruit whomever we need. And it can't be pragmatic because you either do the work or say, that's it, I won't go any further.

46:51 You are saying that If you set certain tasks for yourself, then in principle you close the door for feelings, emotions, until you finish, no emotions, right? What tasks do you set for yourself as an adviser to the president all these months? Quite simple tasks. One voice that should still be among these or other state institutions, this is very important because it was easy enough to work in the first months and it is quite difficult today because there are many of those who voice their own self in their comments on behalf of the state.

49:18 How many times did you change the location of where you spent the night? Constantly, and we won't discuss it. [He smiles]

49:27 When does your working day begin? To be honest, I don't even know when it ends. It's one big working day, a marathon. The only news [?] I have is that the marathon is going on, I'm saying this with irony, from the 24th 7:30 in the morning. But if we speak directly according to the schedule, well, from 7 in the morning as a rule until 10, 11, 12 [I guess 22, 23, 24].

49: 52 How often do you communicate with the president and Andriy Yermak? Constantly. It's work after all.

Every day? Well, the president and Mr. Yermak belong to the category of people who want to know the details, they want to be in operational information. You have to constantly communicate, you have to constantly answer certain questions and you have to constantly demonstrate understanding of these issues, they need it as expert evaluations.

50:18 How has the president changed? Explain in simple words.

52:10 Which book by which Ukrainian writer has made an impression on you lately? It's a bit difficult because I prefer to read classic literature or literature that…

All right, what are you reading right now? Do you have time to read? I definitely have time to read. Right now almost everything related to fantasy probably.

Is it your favourite genre? No, no. You're asking about now. I attempt to go to some, you know, illusory worlds to understand what people can think about this when we live in a fantastic time when the historical process as such is changing.

54:48 What about your personal taboo? What is not acceptable for you absolutely? Insincerity of people. Narcissism of people, insincerity, outright lies, anonymity.

55:03 Your friend, as I understand, Mr Arestovych, some people consider him a narcissist, some people consider him ironic. He's an ironic person. He played an absolutely positive role in the first half or even two thirds of the war, of course then the space was saturated with various speakers and certain nuances in his work occurred, but I emphasise once again that I treat the work that he did with great respect…

Do you continue to communicate with him? Definitely. I don't see… Again, when you speak about taboo, I said, insincerity is not possible. If you communicate with a person and you like him, then you are what you should be regardless of who he is, what status he has, and so on. Either you say that you are not a sincere person and you use people. I don't belong to the category of people, I don't like it when people behave like that. Either you clearly and concretely refer to a person or not. And Mr. Arestovych, I say once again, I want to fix it, I regard with great respect because of the very, very huge volume of work he performed in the first months of the war, had a very positive effect on public sentiment, and this is important.

56:32 Gratitude is a good human quality. I don't expect gratitude, I expect something different, professionalism from everyone. Please do your work professionally if you want to be thanked, please whoever can do it. But don't expect it. Just do the job.

58:05 The dictatorship of the law or the dictatorship of opinion? The dictatorship of the law. Definitely.

58:14 What is useless to ask you? I don't even know. You can ask everything, question is whether you get an answer.

58:29 Will you ever write a book about what you felt during the war and what happened to you that you can't tell about now? Well, it's not even discussed [it's settled]. We will definitely do it and in such a thriller style that it will be interesting to many people.

Do you like thrillers? Yes, of course.

58:51 Have you ever been jealous of anyone? No. It's normal. I'm not saying that envy is bad but it's just that in our country, unfortunately, everything boils down to envy with a negative context. But I don't, I think that if a person is successful, then on the contrary, you should say, you're cool. And if… Well, how does it prevent you from becoming… I just don't understand, what should prevent you from becoming like that, or even taking the first place and not the second, third, fourth. It's normal.

It's just talk but human nature, you know, is like Mozart and Salieri, do you understand? It's not so, it's not so, not everything is like that. It's slightly different. If you are self-confident and if you are ready to invest in yourself, I always say, if you are ready to spend time, effort and become someone else then you're successful because you understand why you do it. But if you want to sit on the couch and be told that look, you're a genius. Well, it doesn't work this way. And then you start to envy because someone runs and invests in himself. Competition is a cool thing. If you're a talent, then in any case it will be in demand.

1:01:36 What will you do after the war? Do you think about it or maybe you know it? Will you go to politics? Well, because you are involved in politics and you are ready for politics? It is definitely of little interest to me because politics is a slightly different composition and type of character, and as for what we will do, we know what we will do. We will not do anything except for remembering all the people, we will have to engrave all those who paid the price so that we could talk to you. And it's not one day, it's not two days, it's not three days. This is the time to visit the families of people who have lost their loved ones.

So you will stay in the game. And you do not have such a thing that when the surrender is signed, you will get on a yacht and go somewhere for a year? I will get into my car, my personal car and drive to other addresses in Ukraine. And by this I mean, we will have to look at everything that we freed, talk to people who lost their loved ones because of stress or who survived the occupation and it will be necessary to record all this. Because when you talk about a book, the emotion must be right in the book or in your memories of what happened, and in order for you to be correct you have to communicate with everyone, you have to feel that nerve of loss to the end, we have to hear it at the end, and not again, I'll repeat, how great we are. Great are those who today pay the maximum price.

#mykhailo podolyak #Natalia Vlaschenko #interview #Youtube

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