Vladimir Putin seemingly took a swipe at Petro Poroshenko today. RFE/RL's Tom Balmforth has been taking a closer look:
As Ukraine Says 'Farewell Unwashed Russia,' Putin Says Take Care In 'Gay' Europe
MOSCOW -- When Ukraine was finally granted visa-free travel to the European Union last week, President Petro Poroshenko hailed it as a "final break" with the "Russian Empire," quoting 19th-century Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov with a smile: "Farewell, unwashed Russia!"
When Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about the comment in his annual call-in program on June 15, he fired right back at Poroshenko. Quoting the poem in its entirety, Putin used it to suggest that Ukraine is historically a province of Russia and to quip that Ukraine should have its guard up in "gay" Europe.
Throughout Putin's third presidential term, Russia has cast itself as a bastion of "traditional" values, introducing for instance legislation to prevent minors being exposed to "nontraditional" propaganda, although officials have never explicitly condemned homosexuality.
'Running Around With Swastikas'
In his call-in program, called Direct Line and featuring questions from selected Russians, the president began by playfully praising Poroshenko for knowing his Russian classics, eliciting chuckles from older men in the studio audience. He then quoted the whole poem from memory, zeroing in on the first stanza: “Farewell unwashed Russia, the land of slaves, the land of lords, And you, blue uniforms of gendarmes, And you, obedient to them folks."
Putin noted Lermontov wrote the poem in 1841 when he was traveling to fight as a Russian officer in the Caucasus, a region also then a part of the Russian Empire despite the "farewell unwashed Russia" reference. In an aside, Putin then noted that, at the time the poem was written, Ukraine was a province of the Russian Empire, echoing his controversial contention to U.S. President George W. Bush in 2008 that "Ukraine is not even a country."
"Perhaps Poroshenko is trying to send a signal that he also is not going anywhere," said Putin, "but he does this so subtly, with an eye to the patriots and to the real nationalists, idiots, who are running around with swastikas."
Read the entire article here.
ICYMI
Russia bars imprisoned Crimean Tatar from seeing dying mother:
By RFE/RL
Supporters of Akhtem Chiygoz, the head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis who has been held by Russian authorities since January 2015, say a Russian court in the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea has rejected a request that Chiygoz be allowed to see his mother, who is reportedly dying of cancer.
The Russian-installed High Court of Crimea made the ruling on June 15, although Chiygoz's lawyers said doctors say his mother, Aliye Abduraimovna, most likely has only days to live.
Chiygoz is charged with organizing an illegal demonstration in the Crimean capital of Simferopol on February 26, 2014, outside the Crimean parliament. Lawyers say the charges are absurd because the demonstration came before Moscow's annexation of the Ukrainian region and no Ukrainian laws were violated.
Some analysts have argued that the massive demonstration forced Moscow to use its own military personnel to carry out the annexation instead of relying on local supporters.
Chiygoz, 52, and two other Crimean Tatars charged in connection with the demonstration -- Ali Asanov and Mustafa Degermendzhy -- have been declared political prisoners by Russia's Memorial human rights group.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and other international organizations have called for their release.
Latest reports of separatist infighting: