Germany Calls On Kyiv To Remove 'Enemy Of The State' Website After Schroeder Listed
Germany is calling on Ukraine to remove a controversial website that
lists what it calls "enemies of the state" after Berlin's former
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder appeared on the list.
The German Foreign Ministry said it "strongly condemned the list"
appearing on Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), which is run by
an acquaintance of Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
"We have informed Ukraine of our position in the past and have insisted
the Ukrainian government delete this website. We will now do this
again," a spokeswoman said on November 14.
Schroeder is listed as an "Anti-Ukrainian" for defending Russia's 2014
annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in an interview published in
the German daily Aachener Nachrichten.
Though the annexation was illegal, Schroeder asked: "Do you really
believe that any Russian president will ever change this? This is a
reality we will one day have to come to terms with."
Schroeder, who is a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin,
also said that Crimea was a gift to Ukraine from Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev in 1954. Both Russia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet
Union at that time.
Khrushchev "thought that Soviet communism would live as long as the
Catholic Church. Luckily, it didn't," Schroeder told the newspaper.
Schroeder's pro-Russian views have made him in unpopular in Kyiv.
Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin called for EU sanctions
against Schroeder in March.
Schroeder's wife, Soyeon Schroeder-Kim, said she was concerned about him
being targeted on the list. Two people previously listed were murdered
in 2015.
"In my country and in my culture we cannot comprehend such an attack on a democratic politician," she told RND.
The website's list of "enemies of the state" has thousands of names, including former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
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