Farewell, Ukraine

Russian journalist Valery Panyushkin, writing in Moscow News about Russian government interference in the Ukrainian elections which will be held tomorrow, writes that "in my opinion, I, being a citizen of Russia, must apologize to Ukraine for the disgusting conduct of my country. I want to say that not all Russians think that Russia has the right to meddle in the affairs of a neighboring state. I, for one, do not think so. I would rather see Ukraine free, even if a free Ukraine hates me as a former invader."

Panyushkin has something to say about the conduct of Vladimir Pozner, host of the political talk-show Vremena, which goes out on Channel One of the state-owned NTV television company:

He promised that should the First Channel executives attempt to force him, Pozner, to forgo the principles of journalism, he, Pozner, would not forgo those principles, but would leave the channel and leave it with a bang.

I am not a judge of Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner, perhaps, he had good reason to act the way he did, but in my opinion he deceived me. Last Sunday his Vremena show focused on the elections in Ukraine. So all the sides were represented in his show, Pozner had invited Kiev-based supporters of the Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich and…Moscow-based supporters of the Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich.

Supporters of Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovich’s rival, who has neither the Kremlin’s nor the outgoing Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma’s backing, did not take part in the show. Of course, I am not judging Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner, but in my opinion, this was a disgrace.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the president of my country, headed to Ukraine to throw his support behind candidate Yanukovich. He addressed the nation with a speech broadcast by three leading Ukrainian television networks, and attended a military parade.

And here I am, again feeling like an invader. When I lived in the Soviet Union I felt like an invader in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine… I used to go to Vilnius or Tallinn and saw that people there did not welcome me, they did not like me because I represented a nation that robbed them of their national flag and their mother tongue.

The whole of Panyushkin's article (in English) can be read
here