Russia: Strelkov’s nationalist movement is reactivated

Novorossiya, a social movement led by Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, one of the former commanders of the separatist forces in Ukraine and a retired FSB officer, held a conference on 24 January 2015 in Moscow. The conference was attended by activists from Russian nationalist and Orthodox organisations who want the south-eastern regions of Ukraine (which they call Novorossiya) to be separated from Ukraine. The conference passed a manifesto which calls for any kind of support to be provided to the separatists and offers the Russian government assistance in combating external and internal threats posed by the USA and the liberal ‘fifth column’. One of the participants admitted in public that the movement had supplied weapons to the separatists.

Furthermore, Strelkov, who participated in the events in Crimea last year, revealed in a TV show on 23 January 2015 that the Crimean parliament had decided to hold the independence referendum under pressure from the Russian army, and the deputies voted under duress. He also expressed the opinion that had the Russian army been present in other south-eastern oblasts in Ukraine from the beginning of the conflict, the bloodless annexation scenario could have been successfully repeated.

• Primary Source

Spiegel Onlne International, 18.03.15: Russian Nationalist Idol: The Man Who Started the War in Ukraine http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-ukraine-war-from-perspective-of-russian-nationalists-a-1023801.html

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