Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 8 – In the worst
traditions of the Soviet past, Russian media outlets at the end of last week
put out what they said was an interview with Lyudmila Alekseyeva showing that
the longtime head of the Moscow Helsinki Group supports Vladimir Putin’s
annexation of Ukraine.
But that was a “falshivka,” a whole
cloth invention that does not reflect her views, and Alekseyeva yesterday
issued a statement expressing her outrage and threatening to sue any media
outlet that does not print a retraction for damage to her reputation and for
slander. Her statement follows below (echo.msk.ru/blog/lm_alexeeva/1395236-echo/).
“I am outraged by the fact that an
interview approving the Russian annexation of Crimea has been ascribed to me.
Repeatedly I have declared and I declare again that I am convinced that the
seizure of Crimea shamed my country. This is a dishonorable action in relation
to fraternal Ukraine which is living through difficult times,” Alekseyeva said.
“A good neighbor must help his
neighbor survive the difficulties and not use them to settle accounts. Thus
must act both individuals and governments. In the cont3emporary world, it is
shameful and stupid to be someone who seizes something belonging to others. It
is necessary to negotiate, not fight.”
“No less than before Ukraine, we are
guilty before the Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea. They have
every reason not to want to be part of Russia which is the legal successor of
the USSR where they in 1944 at Stalin’s order suffered the greatest tragedy – their
complete exile from Crimea to the Eastern republics of the USSR.”
“I am a citizen of Russia,”
Alekseyeva continued, “and I do not avoid responsibility for the behavior of my
country both in relation to its neighbors and to its own citizens. I [therefore] demand that all publications
which printed the report even if they site other sources in which I supposedly support ‘Crimea is Ours’ to
remove this information and print my declaration.”
“I warn them,” the 87-year-old activist
concluded, “those who do not fulfill my demand, I will take them to court for
harm to my reputation and for slander.”
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