WASHINGTON, June 18 (RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova – The recent attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev casts doubt on President Poroshenko’s ability to have a say in the government, Martin Sieff, an Irish-American veteran journalist and author believes.
“It [the attack] will generate further tensions between the current government in Kiev and Russia. Besides, it throws further doubt on the ability of Ukraine’s new President Petro Poroshenko to function as anything more than a powerless figurehead at the mercy of more extreme forces in his government.”
Hundreds of protestors attacked the Russian embassy in Kiev on Saturday. Radicals were hurling petrol bombs, eggs and paint, smashing windows, and overturning cars near the embassy. They tore down the Russian flag and replaced it with the Ukrainian national. Police stood by, not taking any actions.
Sieff emphasized that Poroshenko still has not taken any credible action to rein in, or replace the extremist and chaotic interim government that seized power after the toppling of President Viktor Yanukovych in a violent coup on February 22.
The expert stressed that Yanukovych was elected in a free and fair election with 12.481 million votes for a five year mandate in 2010 with 24.5 million participants. Poroshenko, by contrast, was supported by only 9 million voters with only 18 million people participating in the election in total.
“Far worse, he has shown no ability or determination to try and convert even that a weakened mandate into effective domestic power,” Sieff asserted. “He has taken no effort beyond empty rhetoric to heal the erupting civil war between eastern and western Ukraine.”
“Instead of acting for reconciliation, he immediately approved on taking office a major military operation against local groups in eastern Ukraine that has already killed at least hundreds of innocent civilians,” he added. “The death toll looks certain to rise into the thousands.”
Sieff believes that to head off this escalating crisis, the Obama administration should seek to create an urgent working partnership with Moscow as soon as possible, and to rein in the irresponsible forces holding power in Kiev from further violent and rash military and paramilitary actions.
“Ukraine can only be restored to peace after the escalating clashes of this year by recognizing that power must be decentralized and self-government provided at local levels within a new federalized structure,” he concluded.
