WASHINGTON, April 9 (RIA Novosti), Petr Martynychev – Recent protests in eastern Ukraine were triggered by Kiev’s attempt to violate the linguistic rights of Russian speakers, Dennis John Kucinich, a former US Representative from Ohio and a two-time presidential candidate, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
“Everyone knows the junta in Kiev was installed by a coup and that you have nationalists, neo-Nazis who came to power as a result of that coup. One of the first things that happened was an attack on linguistic rights,” Kucinich said.
“And this of course created a backlash. You know, when you have a country where so many people have Russian as their first language, this was something that threw a lot of fear into people,” the former US Representative said.
Kucinich added that the main question remaining is who will protect the right of people living in eastern Ukraine to be able to assert their cultural identity.
“That's why the people in Crimea voted not just to be formally considered a part of the republic, but they also voted to protect their cultural identity,” he noted.
The people in Ukraine had legitimate grievances against the government of Yanukovych, the politician said, citing unemployment and low wages.
“And many people were sincere,” Kucinich said. “But what happens now is that these violent neo-Nazis effectively surfed that moment and used it to gain control of a number of seats in the cabinet, including those which are very security sensitive. So of course Russia would be concerned about that.”
Protesters have been rallying for federalization across Ukraine’s eastern and southeastern regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Lugansk, calling for Crimea-style referendums on the status of their regions within Ukraine.
Beginning last month, protests in eastern cities have been held each Sunday, with citizens refusing to accept their newly-appointed governors as legitimate, as they were installed by the organizers of the coup that came to power in the capital in February.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has railed against attempts by the West to justify the actions of the neo-Nazis and their accomplices, calling on the US and EU to condemn the extremists.
