MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - A recent telephone conversation that took place between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton confirmed once again that the European Union's claims of caring about democracy in Ukraine are actually nothing other than a "fake and a game of make-believe," the chairman of the Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"The intercepted telephone conversation between the foreign minister of Estonia and EU foreign policy chief Ashton clearly indicates that pro-opposition snipers opened fire at the crowd on the Maidan, including protesters," he said.
"In my opinion, the leadership of the European Union is aware of this fact, but it was not mentioned in any official statements, even those that should demand an investigation into it. The EU leadership's choice in favor of keeping silence on it demonstrates that the EU's support for the opposition in Kyiv has nothing to do with its alleged concern about democracy and human rights in Ukraine. Rather, it was linked with an attempt to support pro-Western groups' aspiration to seize power in the country," the Russian MP said.
"All statements about these high principles, about which the EU is telling us all the time, are, in fact, a fake and a game of make-believe," Pushkov said.
"Their actual goal is to put Ukraine within the sphere of influence of the Euro-Atlantic alliance at any cost, even at the cost of shooting at people in the square," he said.
This telephone conversation demonstrates that "the entire mythology of Ukraine's pseudo-revolution is false," Pushkov said.
"One can assume that claims that the protest was funded by foreign sources and claims that groups of militants were trained at specialized bases in EU countries before being sent to Kyiv are as true as information that snipers hired by the opposition fired at people. We see that the opposition did not hesitate to resort to any methods to achieve its goals," Pushkov said.
When the Russian authorities say that a coup d'etat was staged in Kyiv, they have every reason to say so, the parliamentarian said.
"And this telephone conversation between the representative of Estonia and Ashton confirmed that once again. One of the reasons why Russia refuses to recognize the current opposition government is that fact that it came to power illegally and is based on mystifications and lies," Pushkov said.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said in a telephone conversation with the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton that the new coalition in Ukraine did not want to investigate what happened on Independence Square in Kyiv in late February. The transcript, which is available on the Internet, has been published by an Estonian newspaper.