Italy’s joint Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini (AFP/file photo)
Italy’s Interior Minister and deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has slammed Ukraine’s Euromaidan during its interview with The Washington Post. He described Euromaidan as a “fake revolution”, which were “funded by foreign powers”, vowed to lift sanctions from Russia and said that the reunification of Crimea with Russia is a fact that should be accepted by the West.
A quote from The Washington Post’s interview:
“Q. Why do you want to lift the sanctions on Russia?
A. Because they didn’t prove to be useful, and according to the data, they hurt Italian exports.
Q. You said that Russia had a right to annex Crimea?
A. There was a referendum.
Q. It was a fake referendum.
A. [That is your] point of view. . . . There was a referendum, and 90 percent of the people voted for the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation.
Q. What kind of referendum was it with Russian soldiers there?
A. Compare it to the fake revolution in Ukraine, which was a pseudo-revolution funded by foreign powers — similar to the Arab Spring revolutions. [Editor’s note: Independent fact-checkers have not found evidence for this claim, though it did spread widely after Russian news sources published it.] There are some historically Russian zones with Russian culture and traditions which legitimately belong to the Russian Federation.
Q. Do you support NATO?
A. Yes. We belong to the Atlantic alliance.”
It’s intersting to note how The Washington Post uses “editor’s note” refering “independent fact-checkers” to counter the attitude of Salvini.
Salvini’s interview caused an outrage in the Kiev government which even summoned an Italian ambassador over it.
Brave man, he knows Sevastopol will always be part of mother Russia! And the fact checkers prove mass media only sell lies. Deep state wants a weak Russian government and rob them of the gigantic reserves of gas, oil and minerals.
(((fact checkers)))
Ukraine has had four ‘revolutions’ since it was made independent of the Soviet Union. Frequent revolutions are hardly part of a ‘normal’ democracy. Nor should any outside entity be trying to move ‘democracy’ along its own lines. The US has had much to do with the instability – and now the warfare in Ukraine. This latest ‘evolution’ is just part of the plan to have a NATO state directly abutting Russia.
Spin perhaps but no less credible than the US version. Look at the facts.
Bravo!
It seems that some Europeans have a spine. Hopefully the condition is catching….
Interesting to note that the Questioner has a clear agenda. When Salvini refers to the referendum the Questioner (I imagine he has an ear-piece) immediately states that it was a fake referendum. This is anti-Russian propaganda in action.
Consider it like this. Germany has many US military bases. Suppose one day due to mass demonstrations the German government falls and the opposition, hostile to the US, comes to power. Within days unmarked armed men in uniform start patrolling the streets and borders of those parts of Germany that have US military bases. The leader of those Länder (somewhat akin to a US state) suddenly announce that they will withdraw from the German Federal republic and hold a plebiscite to join the US as the 51st US state. Within days a referendum is being held (Ever tried holding one of these? There’s a reason why a proper referendum or election takes at least weeks to organize) in which the result is announced to be 90% in favor of becoming the US 51st state. The next day those Länder become part of the US by presidential order signed by Trump.
Wouldn’t that look suspicious too? Personally I think the majority of the people of the Crimea probably did wanted to join Russia. Just like I think the majority of the people in Eastern Ukraine wanted Ukraine to be part of the Russia sphere of influence. But the way things unfolded (probably a result of the rapid turning of events in Kiev) made everything that happened in those parts look both shady, and orchestrated from Moscow, not something from a grassroots level.
I guess the analogy would be much better if more than 80 percent of germans were ethnic americans.
I know, but even then it still sounds shady to a casual observer. I think Putin really dropped the ball on this one, by going ahead so swiftly. If the local leaders of the Crimea wanted to become part of Russia it might have been better if Russia had offered them protection instead. Something whereby formally the Crimea would still be part of the Ukraine, but defacto under Russian control. And then start a process of negotiations with Kiev, offering favorable terms for delivery of Russian gas, or something like that. With the Crimea still joining Russia as the end goal, but slowly, and less blatantly. Hell, Russia could even use the treat of outright annexation if negotiations would not work out. Or if the West would impose sanctions.
Perhaps, but it wouldnt have been near as funny as watching the Obama reinvigorated neocon crowd with egg all over their faces.And, be reminded,the characters that had just taken power in Kiev are as nasty as it gets. Crimea would just have turned into another Donbas.IMHO,Putin did what he had to. As for being blatant,heck,the atlanticist have been openly commiting all kind of war crimes since the early 90s;that s the unipolar moment for ya..
Not so good analogy. During the East and West Germany era if there had been an foreign orchestrated coup in say East Germany, and part of E Germany wanted to join W Germany rather than stay under a new rule it would look completely legitimate.
And when lives of people and the liberty of an entire area is at stake, a referendum can be organised quickly. It is simply the will of the people. In fact the long drawn-out western referenda often end up NOT expressing the will of the people because the process has been hi-jacked by a political agendas and subversion. Nah, Crimean referendum was as true as they come.
I respectfully disagree. Unless you have a well oiled and dedicated staff of people regularly overseeing elections and referenda, together with thousands of equallly dedicated boots on the ground manning the poll stations and counting the votes there is just no way in hell you can organize a referendum like that in the incredibly short time that they did. Especially in the Crimea, which until then was part of a failing corrupt state. Which meant that such people never existed.
This last week I worked at a festival, which lasted for a week, run by a well oiled and dedicated staf, overseeing a group of well motivated volunteers. And that relatively small event took MONTHS to properly organize. In essence, it just cannot be done and the way the referendum was done only gave ammunition to the West saying it was an ordinary Russian land grab.
bravo excellente propos bravo salvini!!!