Russian lawmakers: Ukraine cracks down on opposition as Poroshenko sacks parliament

Russia August 26, 2014, 14:55

"President Poroshenko needs a puppet Rada of his own," said Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

MOSCOW, August 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian lawmakers on Tuesday called Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko's decision to dissolve parliament and call early elections “an opportunistic move” that might signal a crackdown on the opposition.

“Dissolution of the Communist Party of Ukraine was first, followed by the Verkhovnaya Rada” [Ukraine's parliament], said United Russia faction's Vyacheslav Nikonov. "It is a pattern to create controlled political bodies" but it led to the shrinking of Ukraine, he noted.

“The situation is quite clear,” said Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the Committee for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). “President Poroshenko needs a puppet Rada of his own.”

Kiev's incumbent Rada failed to suit him since it had many deputies of the previous assembly, opposing the new authorities’ fascist course, Slutsky said.

“The junta regime continues its formation while having its own sanguine way. The recent military parade in Kiev has shown it to us,” he added, referring to Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations on Sunday.

Slutsky doubted the possibility of a legitimate parliamentary election in Ukraine's strife-torn Donbass eastern region. “It is interesting how elections in southeast Ukraine would be held,” he said. Holding a parliamentary poll amidst the ongoing war and political and economic crisis was ‘insane’, he said.

“Poroshenko's decision is political adventurism, indicating that supervisors of the Ukrainian president who made this decision for him do not understand the situation,” added United Russia's Nikonov.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday announced his decision to “terminate the powers of the 7th Verkhovnaya Rada,” setting an election date of October 26.

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