MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma international affairs committee, has blamed Western politicians for the escalation of violence in Kyiv.
"I believe an orange scenario of seizing power through chaos and lawlessness is being pursued in Ukraine. I believe the West and Western politicians bear a significant part of the responsibility for this, as they have regularly put pressure on Ukrainian authorities so that they don't establish order in the country and tolerate the activities of these ultra-radical organizations, who are now shooting at police and commandos and who are pushing the situation toward civil war," Pushkov told Interfax on Tuesday.
"The talk about defending the Ukrainian people's democratic will and the campaign of pressure on the Ukrainian authorities could well cause a civil war there. In fact, it is obvious that it is already in the bud," Pushkov said.
Pushkov noted that such demonstrations are curbed in a very tough way in Western countries, while it was obvious several weeks ago that radical forces in Ukraine were ready to resort to forms of violence.
"At the same time, we heard from Western politicians, the European Parliament, and diplomats that the Ukrainian authorities should not use force in any occasion, even against these radical elements. Here is the result that we see. This is a logical result of supporting Maidan, including its radical part," he said.
By putting pressure on the Ukrainian authorities, Western politicians "have in fact given the green light to the radicals, who have felt impunity and [realized] that no measures applied in such cases in all democratic countries would be applied to them, and they switched to an active phase of violence," Pushkov said.