KIEV/MOSCOW - Senior Russian
parliamentarians urged Ukraine on
Sunday to sack its foreign minister
for calling President Vladimir Putin a
"dickhead" during a violent protest
outside Russia's embassy in Kiev.
Acting Foreign Minister Andriy
Deshchytsia tried to persuade
protesters not to use violence at the
rally on Saturday evening, during
which the Russian flag was ripped
up, vehicles overturned and stones
and eggs thrown at the embassy.
"We must fulfil our international
obligations, including defending the
right of Russia to have an embassy
in Ukraine ," he told the protesters,
angered by pro-Russian separatists
shooting down a military cargo plane
in east Ukraine, killing 49 people.
But challenged by the protesters, he
added: "Did I say that I am against
you protesting? I am for you
protesting. I am ready to be here
with you and say 'Russia, get out of
Ukraine'."
"Yes, Putin is a dickhead, yes," he
went on to say and the protesters
responded by chanting the phrase.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov, in a telephone call with his
french counterpart on Sunday,
"expressed outrage over the inaction
of the Kiev authorities who allowed
the rioting outside the Russian
embassy," the ministry said in a
statement.
Lavrov has protested to the
Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe about the
violent rally at the embassy and the
United States and the European
Union have condemned it.
Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian
lower house of parliament's
international affairs committee, said
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
should dismiss Deshchytsia.
"Poroshenko should change his
foreign minister. He doesn't control
himself very well," Pushkov said on
Twitter, and went on to suggest in
televised comments that Moscow
should halt all dialogue with Kiev
and cut off gas supplies to Ukraine.
Leonid Kalashnikov, Pushkov's deputy
on the same committee, told Ekho
Moskvy radio station in Moscow that
Deshchystia came from the protest
movement that toppled Ukraine 's
previous, Moscow-leaning president
and did not know his "craft".
"I can't really imagine how anyone,
especially a Russian representative,
can sit down at the negotiating
table with him after such an
outburst," Kalashnikov said.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said
arrests had been made after the
rally, during which windows were
smashed and a gate damaged, and
that stabilising the situation in
Ukraine depended on Moscow's
"readiness to stop supporting
terrorists" in east Ukraine.
Defending his actions, Deshchytsia
told Ekho Moskvy that he had told
the demonstrators they could
protest peacefully but should not
resort to violence.
parliamentarians urged Ukraine on
Sunday to sack its foreign minister
for calling President Vladimir Putin a
"dickhead" during a violent protest
outside Russia's embassy in Kiev.
Acting Foreign Minister Andriy
Deshchytsia tried to persuade
protesters not to use violence at the
rally on Saturday evening, during
which the Russian flag was ripped
up, vehicles overturned and stones
and eggs thrown at the embassy.
"We must fulfil our international
obligations, including defending the
right of Russia to have an embassy
in Ukraine ," he told the protesters,
angered by pro-Russian separatists
shooting down a military cargo plane
in east Ukraine, killing 49 people.
But challenged by the protesters, he
added: "Did I say that I am against
you protesting? I am for you
protesting. I am ready to be here
with you and say 'Russia, get out of
Ukraine'."
"Yes, Putin is a dickhead, yes," he
went on to say and the protesters
responded by chanting the phrase.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov, in a telephone call with his
french counterpart on Sunday,
"expressed outrage over the inaction
of the Kiev authorities who allowed
the rioting outside the Russian
embassy," the ministry said in a
statement.
Lavrov has protested to the
Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe about the
violent rally at the embassy and the
United States and the European
Union have condemned it.
Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian
lower house of parliament's
international affairs committee, said
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
should dismiss Deshchytsia.
"Poroshenko should change his
foreign minister. He doesn't control
himself very well," Pushkov said on
Twitter, and went on to suggest in
televised comments that Moscow
should halt all dialogue with Kiev
and cut off gas supplies to Ukraine.
Leonid Kalashnikov, Pushkov's deputy
on the same committee, told Ekho
Moskvy radio station in Moscow that
Deshchystia came from the protest
movement that toppled Ukraine 's
previous, Moscow-leaning president
and did not know his "craft".
"I can't really imagine how anyone,
especially a Russian representative,
can sit down at the negotiating
table with him after such an
outburst," Kalashnikov said.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said
arrests had been made after the
rally, during which windows were
smashed and a gate damaged, and
that stabilising the situation in
Ukraine depended on Moscow's
"readiness to stop supporting
terrorists" in east Ukraine.
Defending his actions, Deshchytsia
told Ekho Moskvy that he had told
the demonstrators they could
protest peacefully but should not
resort to violence.
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