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Ultranationalists played a key role in Ukrainian coup - German media

BERLIN, March 13,  /ITAR-TASS/. New government in Kiev is non-transparent and disconnected, and radical nationalists are gaining strength there, the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported on Thursday.

The article points out the far from unanimous Ukrainian opposition is now in power and underscores the role of the ultra-right Svoboda (Freedom) party in the overthrow. The opposition feels at home not only in Kiev, and this is not only about Vitali Klitschko “trained” in the Konrad Adenauer Centre, says the paper.

Der Tagesspiegel cites Svoboda’s links to the Hungarian Jobbik radical nationalist party (the Movement for a Better Hungary) and the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD). According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the global Jewish human rights organization, Svoboda’s leader is an overt anti-Semite, says the media. Yet the EU is going to give billions of aid to the country whose government is opaque and disconnected, points the article.

Far-right radicals played one of the key roles in the coup in Kiev, reported the German news agency DPA. The black and red flag is proudly fluttering above Independence Square in the centre of Kiev, the flag of Ukrainian nationalists and the symbol of an overthrow in the former Soviet republic, DPA reports. Many of those who advocated the coup see the separatist Stepan Bandera as an inspiration, and Viktor Yanukovych would not be toppled without these ultra-nationalists and, partially, assault groups, the agency believes.