Russians and Ukrainians are no longer one people, for a long time, at least, the last 25 years after the collapse of the USSR.

This opinion was expressed by the Russian writer Boris Akunin (Grigory Chkhartishvili) during a public discussion with the editor-in-chief of the radio station Ekho Moskvy Alexei Venediktov.

He noted that "one people or not one people" depends on time, on the conditions in which people live.

"People are frogs that depend on the temperature of the environment: they change very quickly. If I tell you now that the North Koreans and the South Koreans are one people, you will be very surprised, because over 70 years of separate life, they have become very different mentally, culturally, arbitrarily. If we take Russians and Ukrainians, then, in general, for quite some time now - for a quarter of a century we live in completely different conditions, "explained the writer.

At the same time, Akunin stressed that over the past four years, the living conditions of Ukrainians and Russians "have become completely different".

"Ukrainians are exactly different now from modern Russians, I'm not talking about some Estonians or Georgians, for example. Here's Georgia ... It's amazing. I, in fact, was the first time in Georgia ... last year ... And I was amazed at the extent to which the people have changed in this short time, especially the young people ", - summed up Akunin.