News / Brèves Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente Questions and Answers from Ukrainian Delegation’s Webcast, in Paris France 27 February 2014 Natalia Vitrenko What follows are highlights of the question and answer period, during which questions came both over the Internet and from the live audience, following Dr. Natalia Vitrenko’s webcast from Paris February 24, 2014. The questions, which were asked in French, are paraphrased here. Excerpts from the answers have been translated from Russian. Q. A question sent over the Internet begins with thanks to Natalia Vitrenko for her courage and her extraordinary competence as an economist. What would you think of forming a new international anti-fascist committee — isn’t this something that would be urgent to do? Vitrenko: Absolutely. If, God forbid, a neo-Nazi regime remains in power in Ukraine, then neo-Nazism will surface elsewhere, too. In the Maidan, they shout "Ukraine for the Ukrainians!" They will shout "France for the French!", "Bulgaria for the Bulgarians!", and so on. Therefore, all mankind must fight neo-Nazism, together. Q. Another question from the Internet begins with thanks to Kiev Rus for giving France a Queen! [Anna Yaroslavna, the well-educated daughter of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev, married Henry I of France in the mid-11th century. —Ed.] My question is: Why would anybody want to enter the EU, when everybody in Europe wants to escape from it? Vitrenko: Don’t ask me! I’m against Ukraine’s entry into the EU. But I think that the EU will soon fall apart. Q. What is the role of Putin? One of our listeners want to know about his Eurasian project, on the one hand, and his apparent support for the current President of Ukraine, Yanukovych, on the other. Is the latter a question of relations among oligarchical groups, including those within Russia itself? Vitrenko: I would have liked Putin to act otherwise than he has done. I don’t understand why the USA declares Ukraine to be within its zone of national interests, and interferes there, while Russia, knowing that we are blood brothers and should be together, declares non-interference in Ukrainian affairs. Q. During the past week, the ruble has been crashing. Is this related to the processes Mr. Cheminade talked about in his introductory remarks? Is this the result of an anti-Russia campaign? Vitrenko: There is a very strong anti-Russian campaign. This affects the prices of Russian commodities on the commodities exchanges, which, in turn, has an impact on the Russian currency. But the economic situation in Russia is not deteriorating as rapidly as Ukraine’s; what’s happening in Ukraine is a catastrophe. Ukraine’s GDP has been declining for five quarters in a row, for the entire past year. Industrial production, especially machine-building, is falling. The gold/currency reserves of the National Bank are falling; they declined by one-third last year, and another 13% in January. The trade deficit and budget deficit are increasing. Businessmen in western Ukraine, as a protest against the central government, refused to pay taxes in January. Tax revenues in January fell by a factor of six, as a result of this. The national currency is collapsing. Q. I read a lengthy article in Le Monde Diplomatique, concerning Ukraine’s agricultural land. Is there a danger, under the new regime, that international groups will buy up the land in Ukraine, and use it primarily not for growing food, but for biofuels? Vitrenko: This government is a totally pro-western, anti-popular government, which will do whatever necessary to keep afloat. Ukraine’s land is unique. Our country has 20% of the world’s black-earth soil resources. [Audio break.] Q. What will happen, now that Yanukovych has left? Could things develop in the direction of a civil war? Vitrenko: A civil war is already under way in Ukraine. Three more people were killed in Kiev today. The entire southeast of Ukraine is rising up to fight. People’s defense units are being formed. People are donning Russian uniforms as a mirror response to what is happening in western Ukraine, where people don Bandera uniforms. The new authorities have already criminalized any manifestations of separatism. They are trying to head off any possibility of local referendums. They don’t want to have a situation like in Scotland. They want to turn the people of Ukraine into serfs who have no rights. I gave you the figures: 84% of the people in eastern Ukraine are in favour of integration with Russia. Thus the Nazi authorities are striving to keep their clutches on Ukraine as a single state. They not only want to prevent secession, but to forbid any motion toward federalism or a confederation. They think that their American-trained guerrillas will enable them to keep their Nazi grip on the country. I think they will fail, although I’m not sure how it will happen. For us, the Second World War was the Great Patriotic War. Not only the heroic Army, but also every Soviet person fought against the fascists: partisan units, the underground, people working behind the lines. Every person fought the fascists. Therefore, things may come to a big explosion, but this construct will be destroyed. But it will a real shame, if this leads to World War III. Q. Thank you for your presentation. You have clarified many things. My question is, how would you define the responsibility of the EU in this situation? We have talked today about the geostrategic posture of the EU and the USA toward Russia and other Eurasian countries. What is their responsibility for what has happened? There would appear to be two types of involvement in your problems: both the geopolitical, but also the background issues like land, as was mentioned, and also natural gas. Vitrenko: The responsibility of the EU lies in the fact that three countries — Germany, Poland, and France — acted as guarantors of this agreement. Furthermore, just before that, our Foreign Minister met with foreign ambassadors, primarily from European countries. Here is a Ukrainian newspaper, reporting that during this meeting the foreign ambassadors totally condemned the attitude of the government toward the neo-Nazi Maidan. When the deputy head of the Ukrainian Security Service announced the need for an anti-terrorist operation, all the ambassadors attacked him. Dutch Ambassador Pieter Jan Wolther stated, "Not even a broad interpretation of the term ’terrorism’ allows you to label your political opponents that way." He said, "I would request that you choose your terminology more carefully. Ukraine has no need for an anti-terrorist operation." This meeting took place Feb. 19. Preparation of the operation had begun the night before, on Feb. 18. The subway system in Kiev was shut down and the roads into the city were blocked. This is very difficult to do in a city of 3 million people. But they were demanding that this anti-terrorist operation be suspended. It was suspended, and then, on the 20th, the armed neo-Nazi guerrillas went on the offensive. By evening, the coup had been made. Therefore, the United States provided financing and training, while the EU blessed the operation. The USA and the EU bear full responsibility for the situation in Ukraine. Q. What are the goals of the neo-Nazis? Vitrenko: The goals of the neo-Nazis, just as under Hitler, are to destroy humanity in the interest of a "chosen people." They use the slogan "14," signifying a 14-word slogan that says only the white race has the right to exist on the planet. The Ukrainian neo-Nazis have in their program a point defining "European Ukrainocentrism" as the strategy of the state. Under this policy, Ukraine is to strive to be not only the geographical, but also the geopolitical center of Europe. Hitler proclaimed, "Deutschland ueber alles," while the Ukrainian neo-Nazis proclaim, "Ukraine above all." Tyahnybok, the leader of Svoboda, openly states that just as our fathers and grandfathers did, so we, too, should annihilate Russians, Jews, Poles and others. Q. I have been shocked to see Ukrainians demonstrating here in Paris, in support of the Ukrainian rebels. There are 250,000 Ukrainians in Lisbon, Portugal, but there were no demonstrations there in support of the Maidan. A young man who was a leader of the Ukrainian demo in Paris, and who was originally from Lviv, explained to me that there are no Nazis in Ukraine, no Russophobes, or anything like that. He said there were two types of Ukrainians: those who love Ukraine, namely them, the demonstrators, and those in eastern Ukraine, who hate Ukraine. What do you think about that? Vitrenko: Those Ukrainians who came out in Paris to support the Maidan are victims of propaganda from CNN, Euro-News, and other such media. A colleague of mine who teaches at a university in London wrote to me that not a single TV channel there showed the events of December 1 or January 19. Nobody covered those actions. Instead, they would show a pretty girl saying, "We really want to change our government. It’s a bad government. The police are attacking and beating us. Defend us peaceful civilians!" And since our government really has been bad, a lot of people think: sure, the people in the Euromaidan are peaceful, and the government is going after them. They don’t see the neo-Nazis. They don’t see the guerrillas. They don’t see the blood. What you have in Portugal, on the other hand, is our people: migrant labourers who have come to Europe seeking work, any work, even the most menial, because there are no jobs at home. They have left their families, their children. They remember that when we had the Soviet Union and were together with Russia, we didn’t have unemployment. And they have a historical memory that the supporters of Bandera were always bandits and terrorists, who should not be supported. You have to understand the crimes of these collaborationists. They joined the German fascists in fighting against the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union lost 28 million people. Ukraine lost 5.5 million people, killed. Two million were deported to do slave labour in Germany. These Ukrainian nationalists, the Bandera supporters, were with the Germans. They shot partisans. They killed civilians. They rampaged throughout the territory occupied by the fascists. There was the case of Babi Yar in Kiev, where 130,000 people were shot to death. There were only 1500 executioners who did this. Out of those 1500 executioners, there were 300 Germans and the other 1200 were these nationalists of the OUN. They served as Polizei, as henchmen. And of course our people still hate them so much, that they will not tolerate them in power. See: Natalia Vitrenko Gives Webcast In Paris, Exposes EU Support for Neo-Nazi Coup in Ukraine for the concluding remarks by Volodymyr Marchenko and Col. Valeri Sergachov.