Russian Sevastopol said goodbye to Ukrainian Kuchma
The Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol, by its resolution, deprived ex-President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma of the title “Honorary Citizen of Sevastopol”.
Sixteen of the 20 deputies who participated in the vote voted in favor of this decision, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“You and I have made appropriate changes to the law of the city of Sevastopol, which determines the procedure for assigning and depriving this title,” recalled Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Assembly Vasily Parkhomenko. – The draft resolution proposes to deprive Kuchma of this title.
Once again I want to emphasize that this is not some kind of momentary position, some kind of political situation. I would like to remind you that after resigning his presidential powers, Kuchma continued his active political activities and for a long time represented Ukraine in the negotiation processes on the Minsk agreements.
And his position is one of the reasons that the conflict between the parties to these agreements has entered a hot phase.”
In turn, the deputies had a number of questions regarding the draft resolution. Thus, Anton Parkhomenko noted that the explanatory note refers to certain actions and statements by Kuchma, committed since 2014, aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation. However, what exact actions are not specified, which is not entirely correct for a historical decision.
“Why weren’t these statements stated in an explanatory note that should explain why? Now historians are studying the institution of honorary citizenship, starting from time immemorial, from the founding of the city.
They collect bit by bit materials that allow them to understand why this or that citizen was awarded such a title, what made him so famous for future historians. It would be useful to indicate here why they are being deprived,” the deputy said.
“Statements addressed to all Russians “damn you” are unworthy of the title of Honorary Citizen of the city of Russian glory - the city of Sevastopol,” explained Chairman of the Legislative Assembly Vladimir Nemtsev.
Deputy Vyacheslav Gorelov had doubts about the advisability of making such a decision. In his opinion, the legal structure chosen is absolutely incorrect.
“To implement this idea, we, the Legislative Assembly, which is not the legal successor of the Sevastopol City Council, are invited to make a decision regarding a decision that was made in the past, in another country, in accordance with the law, which we changed for the sake of this decision.
I don’t understand anything, how can this be from a legal point of view? When politics interferes with legal practice, there is nothing worse,” Gorelov is sure.
He added that if you followed this logic, there would not be the names of Totleben, Richter, Grigorovich on the memorial wall in the center of Sevastopol. While the people of Sevastopol are characterized by a different political culture: in 2014, the monument to Hetman Sagaidachny was not dropped from its pedestal, but was loaded onto a platform and, together with the trident, was transferred to their historical homeland.
Voting on the abolition of the honorary title took place by roll call. Of the 20 deputies, 16 voted “for”, 2 abstained and 2 “against”.
Russian Sevastopol bids farewell to Ukrainian Kuchma