You're reading: Russian newspaper editors-in-chief react to their inclusion on ‘Poroshenko’s list’

MOSCOW - The editors-in-chief Pavel Gusev of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper and Vladimir Sungorkin of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said they were surprised by their inclusion on the list of individual sanctions introduced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

“This is a bit of a surprise, in fact I don’t see how my role could be important in the complicated relations between Ukraine and Russia. Our newspaper always wrote various articles on both Ukraine and Russia, like on any other country. It is called free speech,” Gusev told Interfax on Friday.

He said the move is unlikely to make his life more difficult because the last time he was in Ukraine was almost ten years ago.”In fact, I am proud of ending up on Poroshenko’s list,” Gusev said.

For his part, Sungorkin said he felt “sad at seeing such things.”

“I can only classify this as them having gone completely mad there. Branding me an enemy of the Ukrainian people is simply an oxymoron. I used to visit Ukraine regularly, and the last time was when Poroshenko was getting elected,” Sungorkin said.

He said he has many friends in Ukraine, including the chief of the Ukrainian presidential administration, a close friend of 20 years. And there is also the Ukrainian edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, he recalled.

“But there is nothing we can do, we will probably wait for when the regime is replaced and the normal times are back,” Sungorkin said.

Earlier the Ukrainian president signed a decree enacting the National Security and Defense Council resolution imposing individual sanctions on 17 Russian media representatives.