MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The United States underrated Russia's role when it contributed to the overthrow of Ukraine’s legitimate president last year, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Serbia told Sputnik on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview on US television aired over the weekend he knew "for sure" that Washington unconstitutionally removed Ukraine’s ex-President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014.
"[The United States] underestimated the role of Russia, and they underestimated the presence of the Russian people in that area," Sanda Raskovic Ivic said.
Ivic highlighted the support by EU member states for Yanukovych’s displacement, citing his government’s "u-turn toward Russia" instead of a pact with Brussels.
"The United States say they are exporting democracy all over the world, and it is not the first time that they were changing governments and putting some puppet government in many states. This time they made a mistake," she stressed.
Yanukovych served as Ukraine's president beginning in 2010 until being ousted by a military coup in 2014, about a year before his presidential term was due to end. His ouster was preceded by anti-government protests which turned violent in early 2014 following a deferral of the signing of Ukraine's European Union Association Agreement.
