MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday criticized the Ukrainian government for what he described as his crackdown on Moscow’s opposition amid latent tensions between the two neighbors.
Putin arrives a day after Viktor Medvedchuk, who heads the Opposition for Life Platform party, the largest opposition force in parliament, was placed under space arrest for treason, which he denied. Medvedchuk has close non-public ties to Putin, his daughter’s godfather.
Not to mention Medvedchuk through his name, Putin deplored what he described as the ongoing “cleansing” of the Ukrainian political arena and said that those who announce cooperation with Russia face political retaliation.
“These selective and politically motivated decisions aim to clean up the political box of those forces advocating for a non-violent agreement on the confrontation in southeastern Ukraine and a good neighborhood with Russia,” Putin said at a security council assembly.
Medvedchuk, 66, is accused of moving oil and fuel production licences from one of the Crimean camps to the Russian authorities.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula over the Black Sea in 2014 following the dismissal of former Ukrainian president, who is a friend of Moscow and has also cast his weight against a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. More than 14,000 people have been killed in seven years of fighting. that has devastated the commercial heart of the east of the country, called Donbass.
Treason rates are the latest in a broad crusade opposed to Medvedchuk introduced through the Ukrainian government in February, when its monetary assets were frozen for 3 years. In February, the government also closed 3 pro-Russian television channels, 112, Zik and NewsOne, controlled through Medvedchuk.
In an article published Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy defended movements that oppose Medvedchuk’s assets as a valid effort to save him from damaging the country and eroding its security.
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