WASHINGTON, April 18 (RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova – The new Ukrainian entry ban for Russian males aged 16 to 60 runs counter to the idea of diplomatic compromise and the efforts undertaken during the Geneva talks, professor with the Lyndon State College told RIA Novosti.
“This decision represents an agony of the current government," said Alexander Strakanov, director of the Institute of Russian Language, History, and Culture at Lyndon. “This is such a poor judgment, such a poor thinking. I don’t believe that self-proclaimed government in Kiev understands what they are doing.”
According to the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, Ukraine has enacted an entry ban to its territory for all Russian males aged between 16 and 60. This ban also includes individuals from Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (men aged 16-60 and women aged 20-35) with exceptions only granted in the extreme cases such as the death or illness of a relative.
Strokanov called the measure ridiculous and a very poor idea, and even "idiocy."
“This is absolutely unspeakable that people can’t return to their own motherland,” the expert asserted. “The only parallel, that comes to my mind, why not to place them in some kinds of concentration camps, like the American government did with the Japanese citizens during the WWII.”
Strokanov stressed that this decision vividly shows an awful treatment of Ukrainian citizens by the current Ukrainian government treating them by three categories.
“They consider people registered and residing in western regions good, label those registered in eastern provinces as separatists and terrorists, and treat individuals from Crimea and Sevastopol as the third category,” said the expert. “This is ridiculous. Ukrainian citizens are going to feel betrayed and abandoned.”
Strokanov believes the purpose of the restriction is to blame the chaos in the eastern parts of Ukraine on Russia.
There are several possible outcomes of the ban, Strokanov told RIA Novosti, they include: estrangement and tension between people in the country, damage of the popularity of the interim government, and harm to the business, economy and to the future of Ukraine as one country.
“What this government does it just shoots in its own foot,” the professor stated.
