Putin called the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine “a coup d'état” and once again put the blame for “its organization” on the United States and Western Europe. Definitely, the striving of Ukrainians for peace does not give Putin a moment of peace. He has always regarded their wish as a threat to the survival of his regime.
Also, Putin accused Europe of degrading the collective system of security. At the same time, the head of the Kremlin said nothing about the responsibility of Russia which was the first country after World War Two to violate the borders of an independent state having launched a war in Ukraine and then occupied the Crimean peninsula.
In this regard, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the chief of the presidential office, has said that it would be naïve to believe that the leadership of the Russian Federation would some day agree to acknowledge the right of a nation to protest against those government officials who hold the highest positions in the country and conduct anti-state activities.
Such official was Ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. The truth is that he fled the country to Russia during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 fearing the people’s wrath and not leaders of the then opposition or the mythical influence of the United States State Department.
Yanukovych feared that Ukrainians would not forgive him his attempts “to destroy” their dream about the association of their country with the community of European nations, Podolyak argues. He stresses, “Why did Yanukovych attempt to do that? Because Russia confronted him with an ultimatum: ‘choose ‒ either it is the West or Russia’.”
Officials in the presidential office argue that if at the time the leaders of Russia did not try to control Ukraine and other neighboring countries and did not give ultimatums to them, events of 2013 would develop differently.
Podolyak strongly believes that “had Yanukovych at least tried to get out of a crisis using political instruments such as, for instance, a snap election, violent events in January and February, 2014, could have been avoided. But there is no point to discuss it now. After all, Ukrainian society made at that time its revolutionary choice absolutely correctly.”
Podolyak is convinced that the modern informational world has not such a force that would be able to “delete” all these facts which are obvious to everyone in Ukraine.
“So, the leadership of Russia will unlikely to manage to impose on Europe their false interpretation why they have annexed the Crimea and started a war in Donbas,” concluded Podolyak.
In this regard, significant is the statement of Norbert Röttgen, the chairperson of the Committee for Foreign Affairs at Bundestag and a member of the presidium of the Christian-Democratic Union. The German politician said, “We all should be realistic. Russia strips its western neighbours of their right to self-determination. And this is the root of the problem.”
The newspaper Voice of Ukraine
