Crimean Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya says the so-called ‘food blockade’ of the Crimean peninsula launched by Ukrainian far-right movements is just a futile attempt to cause Russia additional discomfort in the interests of Western opponents.
“The so-called blockade does not conform to any norms of international law. But its instigators are not planning to build anything, they can only destroy and they need to further justify their existence.
“They act in the interests of Western nations based across the ocean. They act as puppets with strings in someone else’s hands in trying to even their scores with Crimea and harm Russia,” RIA Novosti quoted the renowned Crimean lawyer on Friday.
She added that the plans by Ukrainian radicals to disrupt food deliveries on the Crimean Peninsula have failed on every account. There is no threat of food shortages and Crimean residents haven’t complained of any discomfort, she noted, adding that law enforcers would not allow external forces to damage the regional economy.
“We will monitor prices on a daily basis. If someone intends to make more money through speculation it is not going to work. We will not allow anyone to profit from the current situation,” Poklonskaya said.
“Ukrainian radicals who allow themselves to rob, beat up and kill are the greatest threat to the citizens of their own country. They can use real force only against helpless Ukrainians because they are sure that this would not lead to any punishment,” she stated.
“All their threats to Crimea and Russia is talk, voiced from a safe distance because they still maintain some sense of self-preservation,” Poklonskaya added.
Poklonskaya’s comments came soon after activists of the Ukrainian nationalist groups, led by the notorious movement Right Sector, began their ‘food blockade’ by obstructing any Crimea-bound traffic on highways and country roads. The Crimean Peninsula’s only land border is with Ukraine, but regular passenger and cargo deliveries are organized by ferries from ports in southern Russia.
In November last year, Russia recognized Right Sector as an extremist ultra-nationalist group, outlawing any of its activities and banning the public demonstration of its symbols.
Natalya Poklonskaya was appointed the head of the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office at the same time the agency was formed, following Crimea’s accession into the Russian Federation in March 2014. The video from her very first news conference in office went viral on the internet, collecting millions of views.
In press interviews she said that Ukrainian law enforcers had threatened her with prison and death for accepting the post, but that failed to instill any fear in her. “I replied that I would rather be in a prison cell than work for fascists,” Poklonskaya told reporters in March this year.
Read also:
The ‘hunger games’ of Poroshenko: Why the Ukrainian authorities have blockaded the roads to Crimea, by Svetlana Gomzikova, published on Svobodnya Press, Wednesday, Sept 22, 2015, translated to English by Fort Russ
