Russian Democratic Party YABLOKOYABLOKO conducted a discussion "Ukraine: what has happened and what can be expected?"

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YABLOKO conducted a discussion “Ukraine: what has happened and what can be expected?”

Press Release, photographs, 19.03.2014

YABLOKO’s discussion club conducted a meeting “Ukraine: what has happened and what can be expected?” on March 19. First Deputy Chair of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO Galina Mikhaleva, YABLOKO’s activists, experts and members of the Committee Against Xenophobia took part in the discussion. Different points of view were expressed but all the participants of the meeting agreed that the interests of the people should be taken into consideration in the first place and the conflict shouldn’t be solved by military actions.
Galina Mikhaleva reminded the pace of developments in Ukraine: from peaceful protest at Maidan against the authorities’s decision not to sign the Association Agreement with the EU to the escape of Victor Yanukovich and inclusion of the Crimea into the Russian Federation and sanctions against Russia’s officials. YABLOKO took part in the discussion of the situation in Ukraine, made statements, YABLOKO’s leaders expressed their opinion in mass media. YABLOKO participated in anti-war actions and Peace March against sending troops to Ukraine and against Russia’s intervention into Ukraine’s internal affairs. YABLOKO’s Political Committee adopted two statements: No War and Path to Peace with the suggestions for an international conference.

Galina Mikhaleva

“The decision to include the Crimea into Russia broke all the international agreements, UN Charter, the agreement on Ukraine’s territorial integrity signed in 1994. It is the subversion of all the world’s architecture which developed after the World War II, therefore the international community doesn’t expect such a decision and Russia is under threat of serious economic and political consequence,” said Galina Mikhaleva.

YABLOKO’s municipal deputy Grigory Semyonov said that Putined used the old horror story about the possible approach of NATO to Russia’s borders. “Such propaganda only strengthens the positions of the countries that wanted to enter NATO,” said YABLOKO’s deputy.

Grigory Semyonov

Member of YABLOKO’s Green Russia faction Sergei Minzheritsky said that he had been to the Crimea many times and saw that the local authorities did everything possible to make the residents disapprove of their actions.

“The policy of Urkanization led to the situation when every promotion at work demanded from a person to give up their national and cultural identity. I remember the moment when medicine’s instructions in chemist’s shoppes were translated into the Ukrainian language and elderly people (who didn’t speak Ukrainian) didn’t know what to buy,” said Sergei Minzheritsky. But according to the activist, the unlawful capture of the territory shouldn’t take place.

According to Secretary of the Regional Council of Moscow branch of YABLOKO Mikhail Petrov, the root of the problem was in giving Ukraine which had always been part of Russia the status of a republic in Vladimir Lenin’s time. Now Ukraine faces serious economic problems.

“Ukraine is the non-developed state with poor economic. The wages there are three times lower than in some of the regions of Russia. It seems like the war has just ended in some places of Ukraine,” concluded Petrov.

Member of YABLOKO’s Regional Council Yuri Sheyn disagreed and said that according to many criteria Russia was a non-developed state too beginning with the coup of 1993, the way the Constitution was adopted and the two wars in Chechnya.

The activist Evgeny Mishchenko said that in his opinion Moscow wasn’t interested in peaceful solution of the situation in Ukraine since the very beginning.

A number of speakers mentioned the historic belonging of the Crimea to Russia and the part the right-wing coalition played.

Representatives of the Committee Against Xenophobia expressed the position of the Crimea Tatars and the consequences of their deportation (during the Stalin’s time).

Sergei Minzheritsky

“I feel that it’s just the beginning of the discussion,” said Galina Mikhaleva closing the meeting. “There are many opinions as the topic is complicated.” She reminded that Russia cooperated with NATO for a long time and stopped doing it only after the war with Georgia in 2008. “For a long time we consider the USA and the EU as our partners. Now this cooperation is broken and Russia risks to become an outcast”.