Window on Eurasia: Alekseyeva Denounces Those Who Put Out False Report that She Supports Crimean Anschluss

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, September 8 – In the worst traditions of the Soviet past, Russian media outlets at the end of last week put out what they said was an interview with Lyudmila Alekseyeva showing that the longtime head of the Moscow Helsinki Group supports Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Ukraine.

 

            But that was a “falshivka,” a whole cloth invention that does not reflect her views, and Alekseyeva yesterday issued a statement expressing her outrage and threatening to sue any media outlet that does not print a retraction for damage to her reputation and for slander. Her statement follows below (echo.msk.ru/blog/lm_alexeeva/1395236-echo/).

 

            “I am outraged by the fact that an interview approving the Russian annexation of Crimea has been ascribed to me. Repeatedly I have declared and I declare again that I am convinced that the seizure of Crimea shamed my country. This is a dishonorable action in relation to fraternal Ukraine which is living through difficult times,” Alekseyeva said.

 

            “A good neighbor must help his neighbor survive the difficulties and not use them to settle accounts. Thus must act both individuals and governments. In the cont3emporary world, it is shameful and stupid to be someone who seizes something belonging to others. It is necessary to negotiate, not fight.”

 

            “No less than before Ukraine, we are guilty before the Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea. They have every reason not to want to be part of Russia which is the legal successor of the USSR where they in 1944 at Stalin’s order suffered the greatest tragedy – their complete exile from Crimea to the Eastern republics of the USSR.”

 

            “I am a citizen of Russia,” Alekseyeva continued, “and I do not avoid responsibility for the behavior of my country both in relation to its neighbors and to its own citizens.  I [therefore] demand that all publications which printed the report  even if they site other sources in which I supposedly support ‘Crimea is Ours’ to remove this information and print my declaration.”

 

“I warn them,” the 87-year-old activist concluded, “those who do not fulfill my demand, I will take them to court for harm to my reputation and for slander.”