Pushkov hopes to hear PACE assessment of materials on fight in Odesa sent to it by Russia
MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) may assess the materials sent to PACE by Russia on Tuesday - pictures of burnt and shot victims of the clashes in Odesa on May 2, State Duma international affairs committee head Alexei Pushkov said.
"We have recently sent all pictures of burnt, strangled, beaten, shot, tortured, and assaulted people in the House of Unions in Odesa to PACE. Our colleagues promised to raise the issue so that the PACE leadership gives some response today at a presidential committee meeting in Luxembourg as to how they view these photographs," Pushkov said at a Duma meeting on Tuesday.
"Is this the democracy the Western world proposes for Ukraine or is this something else?" Pushkov said. For now, PACE has been "shamefully silent," he said.
"The PACE chairperson makes different incoherent and anti-Russian statements but does not speak about the mass burning of people in Odesa. I think this is absolutely unacceptable and we will talk about this in all international and domestic arenas," Pushkov said.
Amid such conditions when sanctions should be passed against the Kyiv authorities, such measures are being taken against Russia, Pushkov said.
"What do they want from us? That we turn a blind eye to those who were burnt, killed and strangled in Odesa and Mariupol? We cannot do this. That we turn a blind eye to the results of the vote in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where several million people have declared their will? We cannot do this. That we recognize the illegitimate regime in Kyiv, which responds to the legitimate demands of own citizens by sending tanks and armored vehicles? We cannot do this. They want us to admit that black is white but we cannot do this," Pushkov said.
