The fight against corruption in Ukraine should be conducted not only among top officials, but also among ordinary Ukrainians.

This in an interview with "Apostrophe" told a journalist and publicist Vitaly Portnikov.

"So, the Maidan ended, and people remained with their convictions. The only value that united all was the desire to see Ukraine as a sovereign state. But everyone saw it in their own way, "the journalist notes..

According to him, recently Ukrainians began to regard the fight against corruption as an amulet.

"We will defeat corruption - and we will not live without healing, if only because it will not improve the living standards of citizens significantly, but will only make life easier, because an official ceases to be someone who gravitates over you and whose will determines your future destiny," notes journalist.

In this context, he notes that Ukraine is in the first place among all countries in which citizens are willing to violate rules and laws for the sake of acquaintances or friends.

"We have a lot of talk about the need to defeat corruption in the highest echelons of power. This, of course, is very important and it must be fought with, but it is almost impossible to defeat it. It is always there - entry to a high position gives such opportunities, for which there will be no chance under other conditions. In all countries there are investigations against high-ranking officials, and this is normal. But civilized countries have achieved the fact that they do not have so-called "service corruption", that is, corruption at the bottom, "says Portnikov.

According to the journalist, to change the situation in the forces of the Ukrainians themselves.

"If people did not want to take exams for money, they would have prepared for them. If people preferred to go to military service and not give bribes to the military commissar, there would be no corruption in the military commissariats. There are places where corruption is almost impossible to avoid, say, in our medical system. If it's about your life and health (or your loved ones), then you can not do anything, "he says, adding that in Ukraine there is total corruption.

Portnikov says that the consequences of reforms will only be visible after years.

"But there is one important thing: we have an archaic society with a rather conventional idea of ??

what reforms are, with the populism of politicians and with the belief that the main thing is not to reform the country, but to find and put all the corrupt officials. This means that when in 10-15 years the generation born in Soviet times will leave active life and the post-Soviet generation that was active in the era of Leonid Kuchma will begin to depart, it will be necessary to conduct a new cycle of real reforms aimed at the modern population. That is, people who are born today, after adulthood, will fall into the era of cardinal changes. And all this time will continue to fight corruption, "he predicted..