A senior Russian lawmaker on Monday rejected Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s claims that Euromaidan has become “the project of the FSB and marginal parties.”
“This is complete nonsense. … These statements are nothing but stupidity and cynicism,” Chairman of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs Leonid Slutsky told RIA Novosti.
Avakov wrote on Facebook Monday that the “strange and unsympathetic” people who continue occupying Kiev’s Independence Square, known as Maidan, are part of a project designed by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and marginal parties that have already discredited their own power in Ukraine.
The Russian lawmaker said the Kiev regime called Maidan the “center of democracy” when it was an anti-Russian movement. “Now, when it has played its role, on the principle, ‘the Moor has done his duty, the Moor can go,’ they have decided to remove Maidan.”
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema said earlier this month that police have been authorized to use force to disperse the Euromaidan activists, who have been encamped in downtown Kiev since last year.
The prosecutor general said law-enforcement bodies should take measures to restore order in the capital’s central districts amid worsening criminal levels.
Mass protests under the title Euromaidan started in Kiev’s Independence Square in November 2013 after Ukraine’s government announced a halt to European integration. The unrest ultimately resulted in the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych in a coup on February 22. Early presidential elections were held on May 25, bringing Petro Poroshenko to power. The Euromaidan activists, however, remain encamped on Kiev’s Independence Square, saying they will not leave until the new government meets all of its election campaign commitments.
