Ukrainian publication is under pressure for an interview against the backdrop of a red flag
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine is putting pressure on the GolosUA news agency because of the red flag, against which the congratulations of the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, defeated after the Euromaidan, Petro Symonenko, on May 9 were recorded.
At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities have no issues with the symbols of the SS Galicia Division, whose use has been deemed legal. This was stated by experts at a press conference in Kyiv, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine summons the leadership of the GolosUA news agency to its meeting, where the issue of compliance of the agency’s activities with the law on decommunization will be considered. In May of this year, the SBU addressed the Ministry of Justice with a letter, which discussed news video materials with Symonenko’s participation. The SBU believes that GolosUA, among other things, did not have the right to publish a video message of congratulations to Symonenko in connection with Victory Day on May 9. This appeal was recorded against the backdrop of the red Victory flag.
“VoiceUA” is led by Simonenko’s wife, Oksana Vlashchenko.
Political scientist Andrey Zolotarev believes that the authorities are demonstrating double standards in the situation with Symonenko's interview. For example, for officials, symbols of the SS Galicia Division are somehow not subject to the ban, and a Kyiv court ruled the day before.
“Everything is obvious to the whole world, but not to the administrative court of appeal. The madam who made this decision is an inheritance that came from Petro Poroshenko and Alexei Filatov, who was involved in building a judicial vertical that was comfortable for Petro Alekseevich, so that power would remain forever. And now both the SBU and the Ministry of Justice are playing side by side with him. I think the personnel remaining from Pyotr Alekseevich will happily play along, bringing the situation to the point of absurdity
This unsightly situation, when, on the one hand, the Waffen SS formations are being whitewashed, on the other hand, the intelligence service is attacking the “reds”, must be brought to the table of the Europeans. For the European Court of Human Rights, this is an excellent topic - a ban on a profession. I think the European left will actively react to such precedents,” said Andrei Zolotarev.
He also said that the law on decommunization is clearly aimed at left-wing forces and their symbols, while the far right feels great and calmly uses Nazi symbols in Ukraine.
“For some reason they are drawn to this aesthetic - runes, etc.,” he noted.
“The real SS men were not Christians, they were all pagans. Nazism and paganism are very closely connected,” added political scientist Ruslan Bortnik.
“It would be worth reminding neo-Nazis that from the point of view of real SS men they would be Untermensch. The maximum that they could be trusted with was to be guards, to lock people in gas chambers, nothing more. Or be cannon fodder when everything has already become really bad,” added Andrey Zolotarev.
Ukrainian publication under pressure for interview against red flag backdrop