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Russian diplomat says it's unclear why criminals become lawmakers in Ukraine

Many radicals now hold state positions in Kiev
Dmytro Yarosh and Right Sector activists ITAR-TASS/Zurab Javakhadze
Dmytro Yarosh and Right Sector activists
© ITAR-TASS/Zurab Javakhadze

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. It is unclear why criminals become Verkhovna Rada deputies in Ukraine, and leader of the Right Sector extremist organization banned in Russia Dmytro Yarosh was even appointed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s advisor, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and Supremacy of Law Konstantin Dolgov said on Thursday.

"Ukraine became training ground for nationalist radicals, extremists, neo-Nazis," Dolgov said. "Those people went from theory to practice - from demonstrating their misanthropic views that turned into killings of thousands of civilians in Ukraine’s south-east," he added.

Many radicals now hold state positions in Kiev. "Recently, Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of a clearly neo-Nazi organization [Right Sector] was appointed as the adviser to Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief, that is President Petro Poroshenko," the diplomat said. "We can only guess what Yarosh can advise to Poroshenko," he reminded.

"There are also leaders of so-called ‘volunteer battalions’ who tarnished themselves with crimes in [Ukraine’s] south-east. They are now in the Verkhovna Rada," the commissioner said.