Kiev seeks to “decommunize” Ukraine by May 9

By May 9, Ukraine’s Supreme Rada will adopt a package of bills forbidding Communist ideology in the country, according to Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko.

“We have agreed with all the factions of the ruling coalition to support a package of bills to decommunize Ukraine. The bills will put an end to Communist and Nazism in Ukraine. We should have done this some 20 years ago but today our parliament has enough political will and enough votes for putting an end to the Communist tail we have been dragging for 20 years,” Petrenko said.

Earlier, the Government of Ukraine drafted a package of bills forbidding Nazi and Communist ideologies in the country. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk urged the parliament to adopt the bills as quickly as possible.

“We are urging the parliament to adopt these bills and to forbid Communism and Nazism as both are aimed against humanity,” Yatsenyuk said.

Before that, the government recommended the parliament to open up secret files of the Communist regime of 1917-1991.

Meanwhile, on Apr 3 the Kiev District Administrative Court dismissed the Justice Ministry’s motion to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine. The ministry qualified that verdict as sabotage.

Kiev’s attempts to equal Communism and Nazism have been regarded as a cynical position contradicting to the international law. Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s human rights, democracy and rule of law commissioner Konstantin Dolgov said on Twitter that the Kiev authorities’ “buffoonery about May 9, a date that is sacred for millions of Ukrainians, shows that they are not ready to break with neo-Nazis.”

“Kiev persists in violating the international law and depriving its citizens of their legal rights – a fact the US and the EU must no longer ignore,” Dolgov said.