'Reckless raising of stakes in Ukraine may lead to civil war'
The West’s open support for Ukrainian protests incites and supports revolutionary behavior, political commentator Aleksandr Nekrassov told RT.
RT:The deals Yanukovich made could save
Ukraine's economy from a default - this could surely boost his
credibility couldn't it?
Aleksandr Nekrassov: I think whatever he would have
signed in Russia or not signed probably, I think that the
anti-government protesters would have said they are not happy
that. I think there is no tactical platform. There is nothing –
no program those protesters have – and to be honest with you, the
only reason why they are still there is because they feel the
might of the European Union behind them and so foreign
politicians like Senator McCain and others, coming over and
basically inflaming tensions. I think it is actually quite
amazing that we see European countries sending their politicians
there because it is provoking violence in a sense.
RT:The EU's chief diplomat, Catherine
Ashton, has now said the deals with Russia won't hamper Ukraine's
ability to sign the association agreement with the EU - is that
still on the cards do you think?
AN: Well I think that the EU seems to be pretty
desperate to get Ukraine on the path of joining the Union itself.
And it is quite remarkable, isn’t it, because if you look at the
situation in the European Union, it is really not that great. Ok,
they are throwing all these wonderful statistics at us but if you
ask people on the ground, you see that the situation is not good.
They are printing money in billions and trillions and think they
can prop-up their economy. It is not working really. It is
actually quite fascinating if you think that the EU which is
experiencing all those economic problems wants Ukraine, which has
a serious crisis, to join it in some way or the other as quickly
as possible, is putting so much pressure on it. I think this is
quite remarkable. I think what we can conclude from that, it’s
the mineral resources and the labor market they are after, and
they want to get to it with any means possible.
RT:EU politicians openly object to Europe's own far-right parties - why, then, do they find it acceptable to support ultra-nationalists in Ukraine - notably the controversial Svoboda party?
AN: Well it is and it isn’t. On the other hand
think about America and some other NATO countries using Al Qaeda
and the jihadists in Syria and basically supplying them with
weapons. The same has happened in Libya. The same has happened
for a while in Egypt and Yemen by the way. So in a sense it is
not new. What is new is that the EU is actually prepared to raise
the stakes so high in a European country on its fringes,
basically risking a sort of a civil war in a sense and without
even thinking of the consequence.
And for Senator McCain, of all people, to come over to Ukraine
and threaten sanctions – who is Senator McCain to threaten
sanctions when it comes to Ukraine? On what authority is he doing
that? And you know what is also amazing, what I find remarkable
is for example Britain where 70 or more percent of people don’t
really want to be in the EU and the British government is
actually siding with the opposition, anti-government protesters,
who want to be in the EU. I find it quite remarkable. Another
thing we have a United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) which
was always banging on how it is against the EU. Not a word from
UKIP about the EU interfering into the Ukrainian affairs.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.