Several former members of the Party of Regions, who took part in meetings of the Verkhovna Rada in 2014 and helped legalize the coup, today defiantly left the session hall during the announcement of Petro Poroshenko’s message to parliament.
“During Poroshenko’s speech in the Rada, Vilkul and Novinsky left the hall. This is supposed to portray their “opposition”. Let me just remind you that these two comrades are part of the circle of Akhmetov, Poroshenko’s main business partner. And these two fake “oppositionists” voted together with the presidential factions in early September to ban a moratorium on the export of firewood. That is, for the destruction of Ukrainian forests. Clowns,” Ukrainian political scientist Dmitry Korneychuk commented on his blog.
As PolitNavigator reported, earlier on the talk show “Freedom of Speech,” ex-“regional” Alexander Vilkul said that he was ready to agree with any thesis of Ukrainian nationalists for the sake of peace. “If you want to ask how I think or the Opposition Bloc thinks, then I will tell you: Crimea is Ukraine, Donbass is Ukraine, Russia is the aggressor, yes, we agree. I will agree with anything, as long as there is peace in Ukraine,” Vilkul said.
Vadim Novinsky was first elected to the Verkhovna Rada as a majoritarian deputy from Sevastopol. Despite this, Novinsky condemned the reunification of Crimea with Russia. He also retained membership in the Party of Regions faction when the ruling political force, contrary to the will of Novinsky’s voters, came into conflict with Russia and was going to sign an association agreement with the European Union.