Putin spokesman slams West, says partly responsible for bloodshed in Ukraine

(Interfax – May 3, 2014) Moscow considers the position the USA and a number of European countries have taken regarding the bloodshed in Odessa to be the “deepest cynicism”, and in approving Kiev’s “punitive operation” in southeast Ukraine, the West shares responsibility for what is happening, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitriy Peskov has said. He was speaking to journalists on 3 May, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax.

“Justifying a punitive operation by those who only a few months ago did not allow the lawful president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, to bring order by legal means is the highest manifestation of cynicism,” Peskov was reported as telling journalists.

“We note with great regret the approval of the punitive operation, the approval of what Kiev is doing regarding the southeastern regions of Ukraine. We consider absolutely inadmissible for universal understanding the words of certain representatives (of the West) that “the monopoly on the! use of force should belong to the Ukrainian state,” Peskov said.

In effect, colleagues in the West are thereby justifying the killing that is happening in southeast Ukraine, he said.

Peskov said justifying the “punitive operation” was a “manifestation of the deepest cynicism in international politics”. He said that it was being justified by the same people who a few months ago did not give the lawful president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, the right to “take measures to bring order”.

“Such a radical change of position in just a few months we only understand as cynicism,” Peskov was reported as saying once again.

Such an attitude “engenders involvement and responsibility for what is happening”, he said.

“Those who describe the junta in Kiev as the legitimate authorities become party to this crime,” Peskov was quoted as saying in an earlier report.

“Instead of together looking for a way-out of this monstrous situation, instead giving it t! he assessment it is due, we hear accusations against us, that Russia is involved in this, we hear constant threats, like a mantra, that sanctions will be used,” he said.

Asked who among Western figures had said that the monopoly on the use of force belongs to the Ukrainian government, Peskov said this was EU High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

“Against the background of the punitive operation, this statement is in itself monstrous: in the centre of Europe armed forces are shooting the population, and from Brussels there’s a statement about the authorities’ monopoly on the use of force,” he said.

“The Kiev junta and its Western sponsors – in Europe, in Brussels, in European capitals, in Washington – may justify criminal actions in Ukraine. They can use direct censorship in their media and they can deprive their population of the right to full information about what is happening in the southeast [of Ukraine],” Peskov said.

But those who support the current au! thorities in Kiev are not able to explain these criminal actions to people who live in the southeast, he said.

“They are hardly in a position to explain their actions to the relatives of those who were burnt alive in Odessa, and those who have died as a result of the punitive operation using aviation, artillery and armed forces in Slovyansk, Luhansk, Kramatorsk and other towns,” he said.