For example, just over a year ago at his first press conference in Rostov, Viktor Yanukovych said that he did not intend to return to Ukraine. At least until he receives guarantees of safety for himself and his family as well. Now he says he is eager to return home as “any normal person.” And not just to return, but to take responsibility for each of his steps as president. Well, perhaps, the Ukrainians also wouldn’t mind such a comeback. They may as well prepare the prisoner’s dock for him and set up the cameras...
By the way, another revelation of Viktor Yanukovych is interesting in this context. He said that he had “appealed to the Prosecutor General today” with a request to make public the investigation materials (we are talking about the investigations into the crimes against the Maidan). And, actually, along with answers to questions over whether the fugitive ex-president had sent a request to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the public would also like to know the details of the above-mentioned investigations. Moreover, the Ukrainians, just like Yanukovych, are interest in one more thing mentioned by the fugitive, “Where are the bank accounts of Yanukovych?” Indeed, let the country’s valiant law enforcement and security services, fighting against corruption, show them to us already.
However, further revelations of Yanukovych, aka “The Legitimate President,” not only make us have doubts about his state of mind, but once again show that the former Ukrainian president is a puppet in the hands of the Kremlin master, just like the self-proclaimed leaders of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. In favor of this assertion are his bogeyman stories about the trains filled with armed radicals, which were courageously met by Crimean “self-defense”; playing dumb when asked about the “little green men” in the peninsula, whose presence and direct participation in further developments in Crimea were long not admitted by Putin himself.
There was also a fascinating recognition of the fact that his guards “were in constant contact with their colleagues, engaged in safety issues not only in Ukraine, but also in the other countries.” That is, “colleagues” from Russia, it appears. So, as a result, the escape of “The Legitimate President” from Ukraine was planned and implemented... by the Ukrainian president’s guard under the decision of (!) the president of the Russian Federation, “It is their job, which they were engaged in, and I have never interfered with these details. And the fact that Vladimir Putin took that decision, on the recommendation of his special forces, that was his right and his business. He did not consult with me. I am of course grateful to him for giving the order... and helping my security to get me out and save my life.... So, according to the above-mentioned, on February 23, 2014 Yanukovych was kidnapped by the Russian special security forces?
As for the Donbas crisis, Yanukovych failed to stay focused and lost the plot completely.
Firstly, he made references to his first press conference in Rostov after the escape, where he had allegedly warned Kyiv saying, “don’t do it with the Donbas.” I would like to remind “The Legitimate President” there was not a word about the Donbas in that speech. Donetsk and Luhansk were only mentioned in the context of his shameful flight from Ukraine, organized, as it is now revealed, by the secret services of a neighboring state with the “royal” permission of Vladimir Putin.
Secondly, he said that he gets his news from Russian TV, from his short conversations with the Russian president (Yanukovych has to wait for Putin’s telephone calls), as well as from speaking in Rostov to those who have visited the Donbas. Are those the same kind of “volunteers” who took part in Crimea’s annexation last year?
Finally, Viktor Yanukovych said that he continues to be a citizen of Ukraine. This raises another question for the Russian handlers of the fugitive: How legitimate, in terms of Russian legislation, in particular, legislation on migration, is the permanent stay in Russia of a citizen of another state? In fact, a year ago, the migration rules were strengthened, weren’t they?
Tatiana Urbanskaya
