MOSCOW, May 04 /ITAR-TASS/. The State Duma lower house of Russian parliament demands a thorough investigation and toughest punishment for those guilty of the Odessa tragedy on May 2.
Chair of the State Duma Committee for Security from United Russia faction Irina Yarovaya noted that all Kiev theories of the tragic events “look absurd.”
She recalled a theory “according to which federalisation supporters had burnt themselves alive.” “People allegedly entrenched on the upper floors of the building were hurling Molotov incendiary cocktails at “civilians” standing on the ground that triggered a fire that caused the death of such a large number of people,” the lawmaker told about the theory that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry had made public. “However, this theory also does not stand any criticism, because numerous witnesses and journalists have irrefutable proof that these were radicals supported and covered by current Kiev regime with full connivance of police who ousted federalisation supporters going out for a peaceful rally to the House of Trade Unions, blocked them there and set them on fire, hurling Molotov incendiary cocktails at the building,” Yarovaya said, adding that there were “Many videos on which radicals without hiding their faces are literally boasting of what they had done standing in front of the burning building and giving mocking comments on attempts of people happened to be in a burning trap to save themselves.”
“Instead of just scrutinising available videos and finding those guilty official authorities prefer to devise some theories which are more fantastic than others, accusing Russia’s Federal Security Service and people from Yanukovich’s entourage [legitimate Ukrainian president] of the tragic events.”
The Odessa tragedy “showed once again to residents in southern and south-eastern regions in Ukraine that Kiev junta is not only unable to protect them from fascist actions of Right Sector radicals, but also actually rules their actions for intimidation of federalisation supporters,” the lawmaker said with confidence.
In this respect, “for the memory about those Odessa martyrs who died in the fire we demand a thorough and unbiased investigation, the maximum harshest punishment for those guilty in this tragedy barbarous for people living in the 21st century,” the lawmaker said, noting that “Until culprits are found and punished any legitimacy of current authorities is out of place for residents of southern and south-eastern regions in Ukraine.”
Riots broke out in the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odessa in Grecheskaya Street with a massive brawl in the afternoon on May 2. Its instigators were football fans coming from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov as well as Right Sector radicals and representatives of the so-called Maidan self-defence from Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, who staged a march in Odessa streets. They provoked clashes with federalisation supporters and set on fire the regional House of Trade Unions and a tent camp which was collecting signatures for a referendum on Ukrainian federalisation and granting the state language status to the Russian language. According to latest reports, 46 people were killed and more than 200 sought medical aid in the Odessa massacre.