You're reading: Azarov presents his memoirs, echoes Kremlin propaganda

Ukrainian fugitive former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov presented his new book “Ukraine at the Crossroads" on Feb. 4. In his book, Azarov presents his own version of the dramatic events taking place ahead and during the EuroMaidan revolution in Ukraine in the winter of 2013-14.

During the presentation in the office
of Russian popular tabloid daily Komsomolskaya Pravda (Komsomol
Truth) Azarov repeated most of the Kremlin propaganda that EuroMaidan
was instigated by the West and with the help of radicals inside
Ukraine that resulted in what he calls a “coup d’état and civil
war in Ukraine.”

Azarov fled Ukraine shortly after
former President Viktor Yanukovych’s escape at the end of February
last year. Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office suspects him of various
crimes. In mid-January, Azarov, Yanukovych and other officials of
that era were put on Interpol wanted list. Currently General
Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine is preparing documents for Azarov’s
extradition from Russia to Ukraine.

The 500-page book
is written in Russian and is generously illustrated. Its summary says
that the publication is dedicated to the development of the social
and economic sphere in Ukraine in 2010-2013 under Yanukovych
presidency.

“What where the origins of the
conflict that resulted in a coup d’état and civil war in Ukraine?
Was it possible to avoid such scenario?” reads the annotation.
During his press conference, Azarov said that the EuroMaidan
revolution was prepared in Poland and Lithuania. “In summer I was
reading SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) reports that informed about
the training camps in Western Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania for
people who come from Western Ukraine, ” Azarov said, adding that
“these militants had a decisive role in seizing power” and
control on Maidan.

Azarov says that during the EuroMaidan
protests there was a torture room on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti where
“militants beat law enforcement officers to get confession from
them”, a claim that sounds bogus because of extensive media
coverage of the Maidan by Ukrainian and international media, and easy
access to all of its facilities.

This is how Azarov explains the origin
of the fire in Trade Union House, which served as headquarters of the
revolution.: “The SBU agents informed me and the president
(Yanukovych) that there are stocks of weapons and explosives in the
House of Trade Unions (one of EuroMaidan headquarters in Kyiv). This
is a well-known fact that these weapons then exploded.”

Kyiv Post reporters who toured the
Trade Union building, as well as western diplomats who also visited,
did not, however, see any evidence of stock of weapons in the
building in January and February last year.

Azarov also claims that Yanukovych is
not guilty of mass murders of more than a hundred protesters in Kyiv
in January-February of 2014, arguing that it was a “militants’
provocation.” “Despite the fact that the shootings were made from
the militants-controlled buildings, and the blame for these (murders)
was put on Yanukovych without investigation,” Azarov said.

He accuses U.S. officials in intruding
in Ukraine’s internal affairs, pointing a finger at U.S. Vice
President Joe Biden who, according to Azarov, “threatened
Yanukovych” when telling him to abstain from the use of force
against EuroMaidan protesters.

“After each such conversation
Yanukovych called off his orders of restoring order on the streets to
law enforcement,” Azarov said. According to Azarov’s version of
events, the U.S. used Ukraine to distract Russia from solving
important global problems and to decrease Russia’s influence in
world affairs from a global to a regional actor.

Political analyst Oleksiy Haran says
that Azarov’s book is nothing but regurgitated Kremlin propaganda
aimed at the Donbas natives who are unhappy with deterioration of
living standards because of war. It also targets Russians to “justify
Russian military aggression against Ukraine.”

The book can be purchased only at the
Russian online bookstore LitRes for just 150 rubles ($2).

Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya
Trach can be reached at
[email protected]