Radicals may push aside Ukrainian moderate opposition – Margelov

MOSCOW. Feb 24 (Interfax) – The Federation Council believes that the victory in Kyiv and western Ukraine has been won by radicals and militants and the systemic opposition may soon be pushed aside.

“As Maidan [people] refuse to leave and to lay down their arms, it seems the winners think they still have tasks to accomplish. The situation is developing so that the systemic opposition, including Yulia Tymoshenko who has been released from custody, may either find themselves on the periphery of this process or execute the “Galician scenario”,” Federation Council International Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov told Interfax.

Consistent with this scenario, the Verkhovna Rada started working “hand-in-hand, without the customary tugging the opponent’s hair or fist fighting”, and repealed the 2012 law, which endorsed the official use of two languages in districts, where minorities constituted over ten percent of the total population, he continued.

“That law granted regional status to the Russian language in 13 out of 27 territorial units of Ukraine,” Margelov said.

The winner’s scenario is exhibiting dictatorship aspirations, he said. Judging by the latest events and the statements made at a congress of deputies of eastern and southern Ukraine in Kharkov, there are fears of “Banderization” of the entire country, “from the Poloninskiye Mountains to the Donetsky Ridge, and from the River Desna to Southern Buh,” Margelov said.

[featured image is file photo]