​If Ukrainian radicals blow up pipeline from Russia, Europe will be in trouble

The threat form the Ukrainian right wing group, Right Sector, to sabotage pipelines taking Russian gas to Europe must be taken seriously, British MP, author and broadcaster George Galloway, has told RT.

Galloway, himself a Scot, although not a supporter of Scottish independence, argues that the people of Crimea have the same right as the people of Scotland to decide their own future.

RT:Just a few hours ago, a threat emerged from a leader of Ukraine's far-right group Right Sector - where he suggested blowing up a gas pipeline from Russia to Europe. What does that say about the approach people who played an active part in the Maidan protests are taking?

George Galloway: Well, it’s a very serious threat and they have the means and the capability to carry it out, so the west must be wondering at least if they have a sense just what kind of a Frankenstein monster have they created in Ukraine, when they encouraged and funded 50 dollars a head per day, the people who overthrew the elected government, destroyed the constitution, set fire to government buildings, killed policemen. That must have all looked rather thrilling in western chancelleries. Unless they had read the novel Frankenstein right to the end, because if they had they’d know that the monster that Dr Frankenstein created quickly got out of control, that’s why it’s called a monster. And this monstrous threat by the Right Sector is a very grave one for people in Europe, because at least a third of the European Union’s gas supply is coming from Russia and if the pipeline is blown up then we won’t have any and then we’ll be in very serious trouble indeed.

RT:Western governments - including the UK - did not seem too bothered by some harsh tactics and statements coming from Kiev. Why is that - and do you think a stronger response might come?

GG: No, they’ve ignored not just words but actions. A Jewish leader was severely beaten in Kiev just yesterday by the openly anti-Semitic pro-Nazi forces that the west has been backing. But that’s because most of our population are not paying attention, but they’ll certainly pay attention if they turn their cooker on or heating on and there’s no gas so it does move us into new territory that’s undoubtedly true.

RT:Let's turn to the referendum in Crimea - the Western leaders have made it clear that they won't recognize the voting as legitimate. Yet we've been hearing from foreign observers that the referendum is proceeding according to international norms, without any violations. Do you think their assessment will be taken into account at all?

GG: When you destroy the constitution as these coup forces did in Kiev, when you destroy the presidency, the buildings even of the presidency. When you have what you call a revolution and others call a coup all bets are off. And when you cancel the Russian language, you can’t expect an area where 97% of the people are Russian speakers, a people who live in a country, Crimea, which for centuries was a part of Russia and was given away in a very capricious act without consulting the people of Crimea at all by premier Khrushchev at the time, in my life time in fact, then you must expect reaction. And the reaction is a democratic one. The parliament voted overwhelmingly to hold a referendum, the people appear to be voting overwhelmingly in the referendum and everyone should respect that result. After all in September in Scotland, the rest of the people in the UK will not be voting in referendum, but the Scottish people will and the British government will have to recognize the results of that referendum. There are many other examples I could give but I fasten on one. The western countries, my own included, indeed in the front rank have been pushing every which way for the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state, even though it’s in quite a state for a state. It’s entirely dependent on the international community and military and other funds to be regarded as an independent country because the people of Kosovo want in their majority to be an independent country. But of course the rest if the territory in which Kosovo lies, namely the state of Serbia, don’t want that, but that hasn’t stopped the west from recognizing Kosovan “independence” so it’s absolutely hypocritical this stand they are taking in the United Nations, they said that this referendum would be illegal because of the Ukrainian constitution but there is no Ukrainian constitution, it was ripped up by the coup, which the western countries supported. And why are the Crimean’s not allowed to decide their future in act of self-determination when the Scottish people clearly are.