BELGRADE, May 5 (RIA Novosti) – Kiev’s radicals threaten the lives of residents in southeastern Ukraine because they choose to honor their history and speak their native language, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin told journalists during a trip to Serbia.
“They [radicals] are already responsible for many crimes. But now they threaten the southeast of the country and violate all rights of local residents, including their right to life,” Naryshkin said during a roundtable discussion with Russian and Serbian historians at the University of Belgrade.
“And only because these people remember their history, commemorate the great victory and want to speak their native language.”
“In Kiev radicals organized a military coup, which led to casualties and launched a disgraceful attack on the Russian language,” Naryshkin said, adding that the new Ukrainian authorities are not taking any measures to solve social economic issues in the country.
The Russian official underlined that radicals have been trying to rewrite Ukrainian history for years, threatening and insulting veterans of the Great Patriotic War, demolishing monuments and rehabilitating Nazis collaborators.
“We warned about this danger long before but unfortunately it came. It is a great pity that our words have not been heard,” said Naryshkin.
On Monday, members of the Ukrainian parliament from the right-wing Svoboda party moved to ban all Russia-associated symbols, including the black-and-orange St. George ribbons, formerly a military decoration in the Russian Empire and now adopted by pro-federalization supporters in the country.
Ukraine went through a regime change resembling a military coup on February 22. The country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, changed the constitution and scheduled presidential elections for May 25.
Since March, anti-government protests have been spreading across southeastern regions of the country, where people refuse to recognize the interim government in Kiev and have called for federalization. Ukraine’s new authorities in mid-April launched a special operation to crack down on the protesters. Moscow described Kiev’s decision to use arms against its own people as a dangerous move and has accused the country’s leadership of “criminal irresponsibility”.
