MOSCOW, June 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has missed its chance “to become a platform for political dialogue,” Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said on Thursday.

“After the February coup, Rada remained the only legitimate authority, but what did it do?” the speaker asked in the opening remarks at an international parliamentary forum in Moscow, enumerating within this context persecutions of political opponents, attempts to abolish ‘the law on languages,’ decisions made in the heat of the moment that have shattered the legal system of the country, as well as “the most awful thing” — support for military operations in the southeast of Ukraine.

He said the behavior of Ukrainian parliamentarians deepened the crisis, while “the Ukrainian parliament missed its chance to become a platform for political dialogue”.

He also reminded the forum of how “entire factions (in Rada) were specializing in blocking the rostrum, breaking microphones”. As a result, radical activists “who have never won any legal election campaign,” were propelled to power, the lower house speaker said.

Ukraine has been in turmoil since the end of last year, when then-President Viktor Yanukovych decided to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union to study the deal more thoroughly. His decision triggered anti-government protests that often turned violent and eventually led to a coup in February 2014. Yanukovych had to leave Ukraine for security reasons. Massive protests against the coup-imposed Ukrainian authorities erupted in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking southeastern territories, mainly the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, after the secession of the Crimean Peninsula, which declared independence on March 11 and joined Russia on March 18 following a referendum.