Ukraine's Right Sector leader threatens to blow up pipeline from Russia to EU
Ukraine's Right Sector leader threatens to blow up pipeline from Russia to EU
The leader of ultranationalist group Right Sector, Dmitry Yarosh, has threatened to destroy Russian pipelines on Ukrainian territory if a diplomatic solution is not reached
with Moscow.
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Right Sector leader: Kiev should be ready to sabotage Russian pipelines in Ukraine
Published time: March 16, 2014 12:33
Edited time: March 17, 2014 16:29
The leader of ultranationalist group Right Sector, Dmitry Yarosh, has threatened to destroy Russian pipelines on Ukrainian territory if a diplomatic solution is not reached with Moscow.
In a fiery address loaded warmongering rhetoric, Yarosh told his followers they should be ready to resist the Russian “occupiers.” The leader of the Right Sector made his address to the coup-appointed government in Kiev, as Crimeans made their way to ballots Sunday to vote to join with Russia or to remain within Ukraine.
“We cannot allow the enemy to carry out a blitzkrieg attack on Ukrainian territory. We mustn’t forget that Russia makes money sending its oil through our pipelines to the West. We will destroy these pipelines and deprive our enemy of its source of income,” Yarosh said.
Continuing the bellicose rhetoric, Yarosh appealed to his followers, urging them to take up arms against Russia, if a diplomatic solution cannot be reached.
Yarosh said that Crimea was too small to satisfy the appetite of the “Russian Empire,” and that the Kremlin would seek to take over the whole of Ukraine.
“Let the ground burn under the feet of the occupiers! Let them choke on their own blood when they attack our territory! Not one step back! We will not allow Moscow’s beserk, totalitarian regime to spark a Third World War!”
The phrase “Not one step back!” was used in a famous order by Joseph Stalin during WWII and became a popular slogan for the Soviet people’s resistance against the Nazis. Yarosh’s use of this particular rhetoric attracted attention from many observers, given that the members of his Right Sector group are known to use Nazi insignia.
Russia put Yarosh on an international wanted list and charged him with inciting terrorism after he urged Chechen terrorist leader Doku Umarov to launch attacks on Russia over the Ukrainian conflict.
Yarosh has declared his intentions of running for Ukrainian president in May.
The Right Sector movement, an amalgamation of several far-right groups, was formed in November 2013.
Members of the radical movement were very active in the violence which triggered the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovich. The Right Sector refused to recognize the Feb. 21 agreement between Yanukovich and the opposition leaders, and declared that they would fight him until his ouster.
Right Sector’s fighters used clubs, petrol bombs and firearms against the Ukrainian police. Even after the coup, some members of the movement continued to use rifles and pistols.
Last week, a proposal was submitted to the Ukrainian parliament, suggesting that Right Sector be transformed into a regular unit of the armed forces.
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If Ukrainian radicals blow up pipeline from Russia, Europe will be in trouble
Published time: March 16, 2014 22:37
The threat form the Ukrainian right wing group, Right Sector, to sabotage pipelines taking Russian gas to Europe must be taken seriously, British MP, author and broadcaster George Galloway, has told RT.
Galloway, himself a Scot, although not a supporter of Scottish independence, argues that the people of Crimea have the same right as the people of Scotland to decide their own future.
RT: Just a few hours ago, a threat emerged from a leader of Ukraine's far-right group Right Sector - where he suggested blowing up a gas pipeline from Russia to Europe. What does that say about the approach people who played an active part in the Maidan protests are taking?
George Galloway: Well, it’s a very serious threat and they have the means and the capability to carry it out, so the west must be wondering at least if they have a sense just what kind of a Frankenstein monster have they created in Ukraine, when they encouraged and funded 50 dollars a head per day, the people who overthrew the elected government, destroyed the constitution, set fire to government buildings, killed policemen. That must have all looked rather thrilling in western chancelleries. Unless they had read the novel Frankenstein right to the end, because if they had they’d know that the monster that Dr Frankenstein created quickly got out of control, that’s why it’s called a monster. And this monstrous threat by the Right Sector is a very grave one for people in Europe, because at least a third of the European Union’s gas supply is coming from Russia and if the pipeline is blown up then we won’t have any and then we’ll be in very serious trouble indeed.
RT: Western governments - including the UK - did not seem too bothered by some harsh tactics and statements coming from Kiev. Why is that - and do you think a stronger response might come?
GG: No, they’ve ignored not just words but actions. A Jewish leader was severely beaten in Kiev just yesterday by the openly anti-Semitic pro-Nazi forces that the west has been backing. But that’s because most of our population are not paying attention, but they’ll certainly pay attention if they turn their cooker on or heating on and there’s no gas so it does move us into new territory that’s undoubtedly true.
RT: Let's turn to the referendum in Crimea - the Western leaders have made it clear that they won't recognize the voting as legitimate. Yet we've been hearing from foreign observers that the referendum is proceeding according to international norms, without any violations. Do you think their assessment will be taken into account at all?
GG: When you destroy the constitution as these coup forces did in Kiev, when you destroy the presidency, the buildings even of the presidency. When you have what you call a revolution and others call a coup all bets are off. And when you cancel the Russian language, you can’t expect an area where 97% of the people are Russian speakers, a people who live in a country, Crimea, which for centuries was a part of Russia and was given away in a very capricious act without consulting the people of Crimea at all by premier Khrushchev at the time, in my life time in fact, then you must expect reaction. And the reaction is a democratic one.
The parliament voted overwhelmingly to hold a referendum, the people appear to be voting overwhelmingly in the referendum and everyone should respect that result. After all in September in Scotland, the rest of the people in the UK will not be voting in referendum, but the Scottish people will and the British government will have to recognize the results of that referendum.
There are many other examples I could give but I fasten on one. The western countries, my own included, indeed in the front rank have been pushing every which way for the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state, even though it’s in quite a state for a state. It’s entirely dependent on the international community and military and other funds to be regarded as an independent country because the people of Kosovo want in their majority to be an independent country. But of course the rest if the territory in which Kosovo lies, namely the state of Serbia, don’t want that, but that hasn’t stopped the west from recognizing Kosovan “independence” so it’s absolutely hypocritical this stand they are taking in the United Nations, they said that this referendum would be illegal because of the Ukrainian constitution but there is no Ukrainian constitution, it was ripped up by the coup, which the western countries supported. And why are the Crimean’s not allowed to decide their future in act of self-determination when the Scottish people clearly are.
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