MOSCOW, March 11. /ITAR-TASS/. On Tuesday, Viktor Yanukovych made an eight-minute statement for the press in the city of Rostov-on-Don in the south of Russia. Pundits believe it to be another attempt to urge the international community to comply with international law in Ukraine.
First and foremost, he denied rumors of his death. “I am alive,” Yanukovych said. He also declared he remained the legally elected leader of Ukraine, “They say I am not a legitimate president, because I fled the country. But I didn't. As soon as the circumstances permit... I will certainly return to Kiev.” Yanukovych repeated he deemed the upcoming presidential election on May 25 illegitimate and said the US Constitution did not allow for financial aid to a government of any country if it had come to power following a military coup or an illegal ruling.
“Viktor Yanukovych rightly told those guilty of shooting civilians and police in Kiev they would have to be brought to justice for their actions according to the law. He rightly warned the international community against attempts to morally and financially encourage the lawless regime,” the president of the Center of Studies, Analysis and Forecasting of the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Viktor Samoilov, told Itar-Tass.
Samoilov, a retired Lieutenant-General, expressed concerns the disarmament of the nationalistic Right Sector that had helped the Ukrainian opposition to come to power was now hardly possible. “This is the reason why the top priority task now is to implement the February 21 agreement concluded between Yanukovych, the opposition parties’ leaders and foreign ministers of the EU countries, which requires that illegal armed groups should be disbanded. They enjoyed a chance to enter Ukrainian law enforcement authorities instead,” Samoilov believes.
“In his statement in Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovych tried to fling his resentment and misery at Western leaders for their betrayal. He had trusted the West and the EU so much. This is a lesson for the incumbent illegitimate government of Ukraine which, like Yanukovych, believes the EU’s pledges of help,” a member of the Russian Civic Chamber Sergei Markov told Itar-Tass.
A day before the statement, experts were making guesses about how he would answer the question about Crimea’s possible accession to Russia. Yet the question-and-answer session was not on schedule. He merely dropped a couple of words on that key issue, “Crimea is splitting away!” Yanukovych could hardly say anything else while staying in Russia, experts say.
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