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June 16, 2014

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Ukraine minister under fire over insulting Putin

Source: Agencies | June 16, 2014, Monday | Print Edition

UKRAINE should sack its foreign minister for calling President Vladimir Putin a “dickhead” during a protest in Kiev, senior Russian parliamentarians urged yesterday.

Andriy Deshchytsia was trying to persuade protesters not to use violence at Saturday night’s rally outside Russia’s embassy in Kiev, during which the Russian flag was ripped up, cars overturned and stones and eggs thrown.

“We must fulfil our international obligations, including defending the right of Russia to have an embassy in Ukraine,” he told protesters angered by pro-Russian militants shooting down a military cargo plane in east Ukraine, killing 49 people.

But challenged by the protesters, he added: “Did I say that I am against you protesting? I am for you protesting. I am ready to be here with you and say ‘Russia, get out of Ukraine’.”

The foreign minister added: “Yes, Putin is a dickhead, yes,” and protesters responded by chanting the phrase.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a phone call with his French counterpart yesterday, “expressed outrage over the inaction of the Kiev authorities who allowed the rioting outside the Russian embassy.”

Lavrov has protested to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe about the rally at the embassy.

The United States and the European Union have also condemned the rally.

Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s international affairs committee, said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko should dismiss Deshchytsia.

“Poroshenko should change his foreign minister. He doesn’t control himself very well,” Pushkov said on Twitter, going on to suggest in televised comments Moscow should halt all dialogue with Kiev and cut off gas supplies to Ukraine.

Leonid Kalashnikov, Pushkov’s deputy on the same committee, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station in Moscow that Deshchystia came from the protest movement that toppled Ukraine’s previous, Moscow-leaning president and did not know his “craft.”

“I can’t really imagine how anyone, especially a Russian representative, can sit down at the negotiating table with him after such an outburst,” he said.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said arrests had been made after the rally, during which windows were smashed and a gate damaged.

Deshchytsia told Ekho Moskvy he told demonstrators they could protest peacefully but should not resort to violence.

Asked about his Putin comment, he said: “I have told you what I want to say. You asked for my comments (on the rally), I’ve made my comments.”

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