Voice of Russia now citing alleged Polish and Hungarian “separatist” sentiments. The new efforts are worryingly reminiscent of a scandalous suggestion put forward by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, deputy speaker of Russia’s State Duma.
In a letter sent to the governments of Poland, Romania and Hungary in March this year, Zhirinovsky suggested dividing Ukraine up according to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact, with Poland “reclaiming” the territory, now Ukraine, which until the invasions by Nazi Germany on Sep 1 1939 and USSR on Sep 17 had been under Polish rule. The proposal was widely condemned in Poland with Tomasz Nałęcz, presidential adviser on historical issues, calling it the product of a sick mind and suggesting Zhirinovsky needed a psychiatrist.
Not Zhirinovsky alone, it would seem. The proposal that western Ukrainian regions hold “referendums” on breaking away from Kyiv to join Poland, Hungary or Romania is, of course, much the same as the demand of the pro-Russian militants in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.
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Note the T-shirt worn by Jobbik MP Tamas Gaudi Nagy during an address berating European democratic values at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The caption could have been written by Zhirinovsky, or, of course, by Ribbentrop and Molotov when they were carving up Poland: “Crimea belongs to Russia; Transcarpathia belongs to Hungary”.