Paul Goble
Staunton,
November 4 – Two weeks ago, Hanna Hopko, the chairman of the Ukrainian Verkhovna
Rada’s foreign affairs committee, called on the international community to come
to the defense of the ethnic and civil rights of the peoples of the Middle Volga.
Now, Moscow has responded by putting her on its sanctions list.
In
mid-October, she issued an appeal to the international community concerning the
peoples of the Middle Volga. “We wanted
to attract the attention of Europe and the world to the defense of national and
civil rights of the peoples of the Idel Ural republics.” As a fellow victim of
totalitarianism, Ukraine knows what they are up against (idelreal.org/a/29559449.html).
Ukraine “must show solidarity with
the peoples of the republics of Ideal Ural” because “they are actively
struggling for their languages and each of them is attempting to preserve its
national identity.” The peoples are
located only 5000 kilometers from Kharkiv and thus are very much part of
Europe.
In response, Hopko says, Moscow has
sanctioned her. “For the Kremlin, this call to the international community to
defend the peoples of the Middle Volga was the last straw” as far as its view
of her was concerned. And so she says she is not at all surprised that Moscow
has put her on the list (delreal.org/a/29579152.html).
Of course, she
acknowledges, her other positions, including active defense of Ukraine’s
territorial integrity also likely played a role and her authorship of the law
on de-communization and de-Sovietization of Ukraine. But clearly any talk about Russia’s
oppression of the nations within its borders is what angers Moscow most of
all.
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