VIENNA, February 17. /TASS/. The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM) should respond and issue a report assessing nationalists’ attack on the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kiev, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said on Saturday.
"In connection with these provocations and threats, we have asked the OSCE SMM to respond to a blatant manifestation of aggressive nationalism and to publish an emergency report assessing the attack so that all OSCE members can learn about this barbarism," Lukashevich said in a commentary received by TASS.
"In addition, it is important to avert future assaults on the Russian Center for Science and Culture," he said.
Russia demands from Ukraine that an official statement condemning the attack by radical activists on the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kiev should follow, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE said on Saturday.
"We insist Ukraine’s government should officially condemn radicals’ actions. Connivance to rampant nationalism has gone way overboard," Lukashevich said in a commentary received by by TASS.
"The next week the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is kicking off. We are hoping that the lawmakers will have their say on the issue. Moreover, their fellow worker - Andrey Lozovoi, a Verkhovna Rada deputy of the Radical Party - led the riot.".
Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s provocative remarks at the Munich Security Conference, urging to ban the Russian flag, might have been a signal to radical activists for an attack on the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kiev, Lukashevich said on Saturday.
"We are outraged by ongoing riots staged by nationalists in Ukraine. On February 17, members of the Ukrainian nationalist organization S14 (Sich) attacked the building of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kiev," Lukashevich said in a commentary received by TASS.
"Thirty radical activists led by Andrey Lugovoi, a member of Verkhovna Rada [parliament] from the Radical Party, stormed into the building hosting around 50 children and 50 adults," he said. "The Nazi-style youngsters ransacked the exhibition dedicated to [Russian] singer Feodor Chaliapin [the most legendary operatic bass of all time - TASS], daubed extremist graffiti on the walls, insulted Russian diplomats and vandalized Russia’s national flag."
According to Lukashevich, "Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s provocative remarks at the Munich conference to ban the Russian flag might have become a signal for radicals’ action."
"Due to the inaction of police that arrived at the scene, thuggish actions lasted for about half an hour," the diplomat said. "The perpetrators were not scared of following punishment and did not hid their faces. They uploaded photos taken at the assault scene on Facebook social networking website.".The neo-Nazi group Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists are plotting to set on fire the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kiev on Sunday, February 18, Russian diplomat said.
"According to available information, tomorrow, on February 18, another neo-Nazi group Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is planning to set on fire the building of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kiev. It is inadmissible," Lukashevich said in a commentary following nationalists’ attack on the Russian Center for Science and Culture in the Ukrainian capital earlier in the day.