SIMFEROPOL, April 01. /ITAR-TASS/. The authorities of the Republic of Crimea, a former Ukrainian region that recently reunified with Russia, have complemented the list of Ukrainian officials whose stay on the Crimean Peninsula is undesirable, with 10 people, the Crimean State Council [parliament] told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Ukrainian ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko, Bratstvo party leader Dmitry Korchinsky and Right Sector far-right movement head Dmitro Yarosh were among those newly included in the persona non grata list, which currently contains 331 names.
Earlier, Ukrainian parliament-appointed acting president Alexander Turchynov, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council chief Andrey Paruby and Ukrainian Security Service head Valentyn Nalyvaichenko were declared persona non grata.
The undesirable visitors list also includes Udar party leader Vitali Klitschko, nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party leader Oleh Tyahnybok and a Party of Regions leader, Sergey Tigipko. The list also contains Ukrainian lawmakers Oleg Lyashko from the Radical Party and Igor Miroshnichenko, who earlier repeatedly made radical statements about Russia and Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population.
The Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with a special status on the Crimean Peninsula, where most residents are Russians, signed reunification agreements with Russia on March 18 after a referendum two days earlier in which most Crimeans voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
The developments followed a coup in Ukraine in February that occurred after months of anti-government protests, which often turned violent. President Viktor Yanukovich had to leave Ukraine citing security concerns in February; new people, including Turchynov and Yatsenyuk, were brought to power in Kiev amid riots.
The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) also set early presidential elections for May 25 and ruled to release from prison Tymoshenko, who had been jailed since 2011 for abuse of power over a 2009 gas deal with Russia that the then Ukrainian authorities said was unprofitable for the country.
Tymoshenko apparently made rude remarks about Russia and Russians in March, according to a recording of her telephone conversation available on the internet.
Right Sector activists had reportedly been involved in deadly clashes with police in Ukraine’s riots.
On March 5, Russia’s Investigative Committee charged Right Sector leader Yarosh with using media to make public calls for terrorist and extremist activity. Moscow’s Basmanny Court sanctioned his arrest in absentia.