Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 6, 2014
Ukrainian Government Sides with Neo-Nazis Against Own People – Lavrov
VIENNA: The West continues to ignore the fact that Ukrainian army is fighting side by side with neo-Nazis against their own people, Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
Lavrov said that European Union and US officials avoid commenting on the fact that the Ukrainian army was ordered to fight together with neo-Nazi groups against protesters in eastern and southeastern regions.
“In the midst of February Maidan confrontations in Kiev, NATO Defense Ministers and Secretary General stated the inadmissibility of intervention of the armed forces of Ukraine in the political process, and insisted on the neutrality of the army,” Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister said that Brussels and Washington continue to confirm the legitimacy of the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” led by Kiev’s authorities explaining that the state has the monopoly on the use of armed forces.
Since seizing power on February 22, the coup-installed government has sought to reinforce the country’s regular military forces with members of radical groups who fought against police during the street violence in Kiev.
Radical nationalist movements were an important force at the so-called Euromaidan protests that erupted in Kiev last November. Activists took part in the seizure of administration buildings, stole weapons and attacked security forces. Currently, far-right activists are involved in suppressing pro-federalization protests in eastern Ukrainian regions.
Dmitry Yarosh, a notorious leader of the ultranationalist Right Sector movement, announced last month the creation of paramilitary units whose aim would be to help regular troops to crush dissent in the east. Since that time, their involvement in deadly violence in rebel regions has been widely reported by pro-federalization protesters.
The country’s authorities have also established the National Guard, a new military structure made of “troops loyal to the new regime and self-defense units” formed by Euromaidan protesters this winter.
“All the members of the Council of Europe must firmly stop the ultra-nationalists activities, and those who indulge the ideology and the practice of fascism cannot be justified, even if they were politicians enjoying the protection of the enlightened western democracies,” Lavrov said.
The growing political influence of neo-Nazis and ultranationalists in Ukraine has raised concerns among the country’s Russian speakers and other national minorities, prompting several eastern and southeastern regions to demand greater autonomy or even secession.
The incumbent government comprises members of the notorious neo-Nazi Svoboda party, an active promoter of ultranationalist ideas. Its members follow ideas of Stepan Bandera, who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II and is known for atrocities committed during the wartime ethnic cleansing of Poles, Jews and Russians.
With the presidential campaign in Ukraine in full swing, a slew of Ukrainian presidential candidates have been actively propagating their far-right views, including Yarosh and Svoboda member Oleh Tyahnybok.
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Itar-Tass
May 6, 2014
Russia calls on European Council members to take measures to stop ultra-nationalists
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Russia and many other countries have long been sounding the alarm over condoning attempts to revive the ‘brown plague’
VIENNA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on all members of the European Council to take resolute measures to stop ultra-nationalists and abandon double standards.
“Russia and many other countries have long been sounding the alarm over condoning attempts to revive the ‘brown plague’,” Lavrov said on Tuesday at a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the European Council. “Every year at the United Nations General Assembly, a big group of authors proposes a resolution that urges to prevent the heroization of the Nazis and their accomplices. Most of our Western partners have been consecutively refusing to support this resolution, referring to the necessity to respect the freedom of speech. They use the same pretext to block similar resolutions at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),” the foreign minister noted.
“Now, after the tragedy in Odessa, after desecration of Jewish cemeteries by fascist mobsters, it is no longer possible to hide behind the protection of the freedom of speech,” the Russian minister stressed. “All members of the European Council must take decisive measures to stop ultra-nationalists. There is no justifying those who condone the ideology and practice of fascism. There can be no justification even if they are politicians enjoying the patronage of enlightened Western democracies. It is high time to abandon double standards,” Lavrov noted.
“Just remember that in the heat of February’s confrontation in Maidan, NATO defense ministers and the alliance’s secretary general were saying Ukraine’s armed forces must not interfere with the political process, insisting on the army’s neutrality,” he noted. “Now, Brussels and Washington are saying that the Kiev regime’s so-called ‘counter-terrorist operation’ is legitimate, since the state enjoys the monopoly on the use of the army. But the fact that this army has been ordered to fight side by side with neo-Nazis against its own people is beyond comments of representatives of the United States and the European Union,” the foreign minister stressed.
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