Thursday, January 23 2014

 It is the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin, who has declared creation of the Eurasian Union as a priority of his presidency, that are first of all to blame for the death of 5 people killed in the clashes between the demonstrators and the riot police in Kyiv, Ukrainian politician and public figure Oleg Rybachuk said when replying to ArmInfo's question in his online interview.     

"The Ukraine-Europe rapprochement is a direct challenge against the given project of Putin, because other countries of the former USSR will follow the successful implementation of Ukraine's European integration", he said. "The civil war in Ukraine still meets the secret desires of the Kremlin and some of its vassals in Ukraine", he stressed. 

As regards Sergey Nikoyan's death, Rybachuk qualified him as a big patriot of Ukraine and one of the most active participants in Euromaidan. According to Rybachuk, Nikoyan's death shocked first of all the Ukrainian citizens and the World Economic Forum in Davos observed a minute of silence for those killed in Maidan. However, at the briefing held for the foreign ambassadors, the Government of Ukraine did not even mention the innocent victims and the experienced diplomats got indignant at that.   

"The European choice of Ukraine implies impossibility of the authorities' use of weapons against the peaceful demonstrators, as well as independence of the courts, freedom of expression, media freedom, etc.  Meanwhile, setting people by the ears and creating zones of onerous conflicts are the practices of the USSR special services", he said. Rybachuk thinks that there are still chances to improve the situation, the authorities fail to intimidate the demonstrators, the country calls to the colors, the authorities' attempts to send special forces and army forces to Kyiv are being blocked, dozens of thousands of Ukrainians are in the center of Kyiv round-the-clock and they are building additional barricades, and the developments are being broadcast live.

The joint online press conferences of experts for the Armenian and Azerbaijani mass media are organized under the project aimed at enlarging the knowledge of Armenians and Azeris about each other and establishing mutual confidence via first-hand information. The project of the Region Research Center (Armenia) and Institute of Peace and Democracy (Azerbaijan) is supported by the British Embassies in Armenia and Azerbaijan.