Ex-President Yanukovych Sees 2014 Coup As Western Project 'Ukraine As Anti-Russia'

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2021) The 2014 coup in Ukraine was not a result of the authorities' mildness, it was predetermined by the implementation of the Western project that can be described as "Ukraine as anti-Russia", former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said.

Ukraine will celebrate the 30th anniversary of independence on August 24. Yanukovych left the country in 2014 after the coup.

"We guaranteed freedom of speech even in cases when this 'freedom' infringed on the foundations of statehood; we did not interfere with the right of western regions residents to create monuments to those whom they considered their national heroes even at the cost of insulting the historical memory of the inhabitants of the southeast; we did not persecute members of nationalist organizations, believing that they would appreciate the tolerant attitude of the state; we turned a blind eye to many things ... I do not think it was a wrong policy.

The coup that took place in 2014 was not a result of our mildness. It was predetermined by the implementation of the project 'Ukraine as anti-Russia,' and if we accept this postulate as a given, then everything will click into place," Yanukovych said in his address seen by Sputnik.

According to the former president, the rescheduling of the signing of the association agreement with the European Union was "signal for the start of the illegal seizure of power and anti-Russia hysteria."

Yanukovych noted that "under pressure from the West, we found ourselves in a situation where the understanding of the premature signing of the association agreement stumbled across the desire of our opponents to push through this decision at any cost."

"The consequences did not bother them, as in any case, the responsibility for the socioeconomic catastrophe that we are seeing in Ukraine today would fall on the current government," Yanukovych concluded.