På engelsk:
Aug. 5 (EIRNS)—A non-serious “critique” of the Ukrainian blacklist in the Indian website “The Print” on July 29 quotes top Zelensky Administration advisor Mikhailo Podolyak [Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine] on punishments Ukraine seeks for those on its list. The article is on the subject of the three Indians blacklisted: Sam Pitroda, journalist Saeed Naqvi, and diplomat P.S. Raghavan. Link to the article.
Author Kapil Komireddi, who interviewed Podolyak for Britain’s Telegraph in March, reports that he asked Podolyak to “explain” the hitlist. The reply in brief is the Zelenskyy government wants to have the listed prominent individuals “sanctioned” by various countries; treated as though they were “instruments of war”; their influence limited; and to subject them to “military lustration.”
Podolyak told Komireddi: “The inclusion of certain people, including representatives of foreign states, in the ‘military lustration lists,’ is absolutely justified because information is an extremely important part of the war as a whole…. Of course, any justification of the war in favor of Russia, any mention that Russia had the right to attack another country, the denial of Russian war crimes and the spread of disinformation, is an indirect form of participation in a hybrid war and support for the massacres of Ukrainians. Ukraine constantly monitors which public figures in the world are spreading Russia’s cannibalistic narratives. Recording such facts, we consider these people to be unconditional agents of Russian influence…. This means that we officially respond to this with sanctions both within the country and seek sanctions against them in other countries of the civilized world. I will repeat once again because it’s important: These people … themselves are a kind of instrument of war. And of course, Ukraine is obliged to limit the influence of such people.”
“Lustration” is a Roman term meaning purification or “cleansing”; but since the 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine, it has had a very specific meaning: purge. A Washington Post guest post reported it April 9, 2014, with a photo of Communist lawmakers of the Verkhovna Rada being attacked. A Lustration Committee was created and attached to the Council of Ministers within days of the Maidan coup. Judges, court administrators, local civil servants, intelligence personnel, all were subject to lustration and possible criminal prosecution; then came members of the Supreme Rada; then entire party delegations in the Rada. “Military lustration” was much discussed and conducted in post-Soviet Europe in the 1990s; and carried out against the Iraqi Armed Forces after the 2003 U.S. invasion, with terrible results….
Now, says Podolyak, citizens of foreign states are on the purge list.
Billede: President.gov.ua CC 4.0
