Sunday, July 22nd., 2018Ukraine Furious After Italy's Salvini Calls 2014 Revolution "Fake" And "Foreign-Funded"
Sunday, July 22nd., 2018 "...Salvini shot back, saying "compare it to the fake revolution
in Ukraine, which was a pseudo-revolution funded by foreign powers –
similar to the Arab Spring revolutions" adding that "There are
some historically Russian zones with Russian culture and traditions
which legitimately belong to the Russian Federation."..."
And let it not escape our attention how sweetly Mrs. Nuland's kind, humanitarian activity is supported , (see photo below), by the then American Ambassador's generous philo-Ukrainian moves. Almost equally friendly to the now, very remarkable and distinct indeed, philhellenic ones... m.l.p.
Ukraine Furious After Italy's Salvini Calls 2014 Revolution "Fake" And "Foreign-Funded"
"We are responding. On Monday, we will meet with the Italian
ambassador. He is a very nice person. I understand that he cannot be
responsible for the words of their politicians, especially given that
that one politician went to Crimea and just returned from Moscow, where,
according to our information, he met with Putin," Olena Zerkal,
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister, told the local Channel 5 on Friday."
Ukraine was infuriated by Salvini's comments made during his interview with the Washington Post,
published earlier this week. WaPo senior associate editor Lally
Weymouth tried to grill the minister over his support for Crimea’s
return to Russia, calling the referendum that took place in Crimea in
2014 "fake."
Q. You said that Russia had a right to annex Crimea?
A. There was a referendum. Q. It was a fake referendum.
A. [That is your] point of view. . . . There was a referendum, and 90
percent of the people voted for the return of Crimea to the Russian
Federation.
Salvini shot back, saying "compare it to the fake revolution
in Ukraine, which was a pseudo-revolution funded by foreign powers –
similar to the Arab Spring revolutions" adding that "There are
some historically Russian zones with Russian culture and traditions
which legitimately belong to the Russian Federation."
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry angrily responded that Salvini words were
"not grounded in real facts and in contradiction of recognized
principles and norms of international law."
Zerkal also downplayed Salvini’s words on Friday by saying that "it
was hard to expect any different rhetoric from him," following the
"pro-Russian" Salvini’s recent visit to Crimea as an Italian lawmaker.
The tension goes back to the February 2014 "Maidan" revolution, when
then-president Viktor Yanuvkoich was overthrown in a violent,
US-assisted coup d'etat. Obama's Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria
Nuland, made numerous trips to Kiev to telegraph US support for the
anti-Yanukovich protesters, and was even spotted handing treats to the
demonstrators, boasted that Washington had invested $5 billion into the
promotion of democracy in Ukraine. In the now infamous leaked recording
in which the Asst. State Secretary said "Fuck the EU" over the Union's lack of support for the US strategy, Nuland was revealed as the mastermind behind the Ukraine unrest. Victoria Nuland hands out bread to protesters at Independence square in Kiev December 11, 2013.The
new pro-Western government sent tanks to eastern Ukraine in spring 2014
where the population refused to recognize the coup, at which point
Russian soldiers were dispatched to Crimea - a critical chokepoint for
the US navy - which held a referendum that saw the local population vote
overwhelmingly to join Russia.
In response, the US and the EU accused Russia of annexing Crimea and
stoking the conflict in Donbass, as they slapped Moscow with several
waves of sanctions targeting individuals, companies and whole sectors of
economy. The animosity between the US State Department, if not so much
the US president, and Ukraine continues to this day.
And while most of Europe had strictly adhered to the
conventionally-accepted western narrative, the statement by Salvini
indicates that as Europe is washed over by a populist wave, recent
history is also being reassessed.
