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Russian lower house speaker hits out at Zelensky’s political failures

According to Vyacheslav Volodin, the Ukrainian president’s threats to reconsider the country’s renunciation of nuclear weapons turned into a global security issue
Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin Sergei Fadeichev/TASS
Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin
© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s failure to launch talks with the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR) buried the Minsk Agreements, Speaker of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin said on Telegram on Friday.

"Having inherited the Donbass problem, he turned out to be unable to get over himself and come to the negotiating table with the heads of the DPR and LPR. What was the reason? Was it arrogance? a lack of political experience or irresponsibility? Zelensky had to engage in dialogue. It was him that buried the Minsk Agreements," Volodin noted.

He noted that Zelensky had made a lot of mistakes during his tenure, "sending undesirable politicians to jail, pandering to nationalists and shutting down media outlets. "Some of these errors were fatal," Volodin stressed. One of them, in his view, was that Ukraine failed to adopt an independent policy. "A state like Ukraine should pursue an independent policy instead of kowtowing to the US and Europe. Having placed his bets on Washington and Brussels, Zelensky forgot about the interests of his fellow citizens," the senior Russian lawmaker emphasized. Instead of making Ukraine a non-bloc neutral country, Zelensky "in fact dragged it into NATO."

According to Volodin, the Ukrainian president’s threats to reconsider the country’s renunciation of nuclear weapons turned into a global security issue. "Zelensky’s threats to reconsider Ukraine’s renunciation of nuclear weapons turned into a real global security issue for the entire world. By making such statements, he proved to be an irresponsible head of state," he pointed out.

Volodin added that the current developments marked "the logical end to the political career of an actor unable to understand the difference between acting and actually being responsible for millions of lives.".