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Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: Agreement Means Right Sector Must Be Disarmed
18 April 2014
(EIRNS) — While President Barack Obama and coup-installed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseni Yatsenyuk both made it sound as if today’s Geneva Statement put all the burden on Russia to "call back" forces from eastern Ukraine and force "terrorists and separatists" in the southeast to disarm, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed the obvious: that the agreement "covers" the speedy disarming of Right Sector. The latter is the neo-fascist paramilitary organization, which was thanked by Euromaidan organizers for the violent attacks on police that made the Feb. 22 coup in Kiev possible, and has recently been taking up police (and mafia-style protection) functions in various cities. Lavrov spoke at a press conference after release of the Geneva Statement by himself, US Secretary of State John Kerrey, the EU’s British foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya from the coup-installed government. Asked about a clause in the statement regarding the disarming of illegal paramilitary groups, which Obama, Yatsenyuk, and the western press have discussed strictly in terms of anti-coup protesters in the southeast, Lavrov said: "You know, back in the Feb. 21 agreement [between President Victor Yanukovych and the Parliamentary opposition, just before the coup], there was a point on disarming illegal groups. Little has been done since then. Far from all of them were disarmed. Right Sector continues to function, refusing to give up its arms, and arrogantly states that it will carry out the function of the Ukrainian Army in the event the latter is dysfunctional. All of these aggressive manifestations are ’covered’ by our Statement." "It is impossible to solve the problem of illegally seized buildings in one region of Ukraine when the illegally seized buildings are not freed in another," Lavrov said. "Those who took power in Kiev as a result of a coup — if they consider themselves as representing the interests of all the Ukrainians — must show the initiative, extend a friendly hand to the regions, listen to their concerns, and sit down with them at the negotiation table." Lavrov emphasized the call, in the Statement, "to begin a broad national dialogue in the framework of the constitutional process, which must be inclusive, transparent, and have accountability." He regretted that Ukrainian opposition representatives from the southeast were not present in Geneva today, but reported that he had "presented and distributed documents adopted by the Presidium of the Party of Regions, the Luhansk Regional Council, and the new movement South-East Ukraine [of Oleh Tsaryov]." Their topics included, "measures to de-escalate the situation, bar the use of force or the threat of force for solving various disputes, and, most important, a vision of the South-East of provisions that should definitely be included in the new constitution: above all, those are decentralization, a substantial expansion of the powers of the regions, including the right to elect their own legislative and executive bodies, and a proper role for the Russian language in Ukrainian society." Asked about Ukraine’s military neutrality, Lavrov said that it is already enshrined in Ukrainian law, and criticized the recent statements of NATO officials Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Alexander Vershbow, pointing towards pulling Ukraine closer to NATO. Lavrov returned to the matter of extremists within the coup coalition, in responding to a question about potential Russian intervention in Ukraine. While stressing that Russia has no desire to send forces, Lavrov also alluded to the radical anti-Russian racism of the Svoboda Party, a member of the coup-government coalition: "Without question," he said, "we are extremely concerned about the discrimination by the current authorities against the Russian and Russian-speaking population, the Russian language and culture. In Parliament one can hear absolutely disgusting statements, such as members of the ruling coalition publicly referring to Russian-speakers as "creatures" and stating that all those who speak Russian should be Yatsenyuk, addressing a late-evening cabinet meeting after the Geneva Statement was issued, again referred to the southeast protesters as "extremists and terrorists," boasting that "Russia has been forced to condemn extremism and to sign off on disarming all armed gangs and removing them from these premises." He added, "Come out! Your time is up." In Ukrainian wire reports of the speech, there was no mention of Right Sector or of parts of the country other than the southeast. [Rachel B Douglas] See also: Ukraine at the crossroads / L’Ukraine à la croisée des chemins |