You're reading: St. Petersburg lawmaker heads picket near US Consulate against interference in Ukraine’s affairs

St. Petersburg - Vitaly Milonov, a member of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly's legislation committee, headed a picket near the U.S. Consulate General in St. Petersburg against what the picketers see as Western countries' interference in Ukraine's affairs on Friday. 

About 30 people took part in the event, among them members of the Young Guard of United Russia, the Rodina party, Cossacks, and some Ukrainian citizens. Milonov was supported by his colleague Alexei Vorontsov, a deputy head of the Russian Communist Party faction at the Legislative Assembly.

“It is inappropriate to behave like a master in somebody else’s home. Unfortunately, a lot of U.S. congressmen and senators still have a Wild West cowboy mentality sitting in their heads. They believe they are entitled to dictate their conditions and policies in other countries,” Milonov said.

Russians “are not interfering in the Ukrainian people’s choice and not suggesting that they should vote for this or that party, unlike the Americans,” Milonov said. “We believe our [Ukrainian] brothers should make a choice on their own,” he said.

He handed a letter addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama to the Consulate General. In particular, the activists urged Obama “to review the approaches toward this country’s foreign policy in a most serious way.”

“What really matters is not that Barack Obama should read our address but that this initiative should prompt all civilized countries to come up to the [U.S.] consulates and say: ‘That’s all, guys. You are no longer bossing people around here. You are no longer the Big Brother telling everyone how they should behave,” Milonov said.

The picket had been previously cleared with the city authorities and passed without incidents.