Tymoshenko blames initiative of holding TV link with Russian channel on ex-president Poroshenko
KYIV. July 8 (Interfax) - The initiative to hold a television link between the Ukrainian TV channel NewsOne and a Russian one was a result of policies of the fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, Batkivshchyna party leader Yulia Tymoshenko said.
"Don't tell us that organizing television links is some new, incomprehensible story for us. Petro Poroshenko had been 'building' this 'television bridge' for five years. And now, this bridge is going to be used for a very fierce information attack on Ukraine. So now is not the time to cry but to stop this immediately," Tymoshenko told the Verkhovna Rada conciliation board on Monday.
Speaker Andriy Parubiy and his first deputy Iryna Herashchenko disagreed with her.
"When I hear political speeches and hear that it turns out Poroshenko is to blame, I want to tell you: were Petro Poroshenko president today, we wouldn't even be having this kind of discussion. The question of a television link would have been resolved instantly, by the National Security and Defense Council [...] Today, we're worried and anxious because we expect our newly-elected president to defend Ukraine's national interests just as firmly and articulately as Petro Poroshenko did," Parubiy said.
Herashchenko, in turn, said the attendees who are critical of Poroshenko spend much time on pro-Russian television channels.
On Monday, Ukraine's NewsOne television channel reported cancelling a TV link with Russia's Rossiya 1 television channel "because of direct threats of physical reprisals addressed to the channel, its journalists, and their families."