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Italy’s La Repubblica Moscow correspondent claims he received threats from Ukraine

The journalist is known for having pro-Russian positions on the Ukrainian issue

ROME, April 17. /TASS/. Nicola Lombardozzi, a Moscow correspondent of Italy’ La Repubblica, told TASS on Friday he had received threats from Ukraine after his publications about the situation in that country.

"I am reputed as having pro-Russian positions on the Ukrainian problem. The Ukrainians accuse me of being, as they say, a "Moscow man." And I have already received threats from Kiev," he said. "As a matter of fact, I take no one’s position, I write what I see and understand. And it is absolutely evident that power in Kiev is in the hands of Nazis. I have been there and I have seen them on the streets. For several months, I have been trying to bring it home in my publications that Russia is right in respect of Ukraine. And if I disprove anything in Moscow’s policy and course, I openly write about that as well."

He said Western media, Italian among them, were too selective in terms of citing information. "If it is about something unpleasing about Putin, especially when it comes from the American media, our journalists would race to cite it, and once anything negative is said about Ukraine, such news is ignored," the Italian journalist noted. "It is not about malicious intent, it is rather about superficial approach to work demonstrated by our journalists, especially those who work with internet publications."

Apart from that, Lombardozzi said he thought it inadmissible that the Western media slurred over slaying of Ukrainian opposition leaders. "I looked over the news that are slurred over or ignored. And I have found out that it is a real extermination of all who are in opposition to the current Ukrainian authorities: mysterious suicides, unsolved crimes, unexplained disappearances linked with at least 15 dissidents eliminated since mid-February," he wrote in a feature published in today’s Repubblica. According to Lombardozzi, the ultra-nationalist movement Right Sector, responsible for violence during the Euromaidan [Maidan is the name for downtown Kiev's Independence Square, which is the symbol of Ukrainian protests. The words "Maidan" and "Euromaidan" are used as a collective name for anti-government protests in Ukraine that started when President Viktor Yanukovich refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union in November 2013 - TASS] and crackdown on protests in Ukraine’s southeastern regions, is imposing its choice on Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and thus hampering peace settlement.