The incident that occurred in Lviv on May 9 can be explained by historical circumstances and should not surprise anyone, German expert on Russia Alexander Rahr said.
"Western Ukraine has its own specifics. They were part of the Austrian Empire for quite a long time. Elites there had adversarial feelings toward a powerful Russian Empire. Russia was both feared, hated and rejected, and they were eager to be more Catholic than the Catholics themselves. The elites there are specific, small, but very much ideological. They passed this genetic fear and hatred toward the eastern neighbor down generations," Rahr said in an interview with Interfax.
"Then they became part of Ukraine, which they in fact did not want to join. Therefore I can well imagine that this can hardly be understood in Russia. But when Wehrmacht and SS marched on and the Hitlerite German army entered the Soviet territory, you should not forget that whole villages from border districts and lands of former Russia or the Soviet Union would surrender to the Germans and welcome them with bread and salt so that they would liberate them from the Stalin rule," Rahr said.
"These traditions, attitudes and understanding of WWII are still quite strong in the west of Ukraine. The Germans are still perceived as liberators from Stalin’s Russia, which had conquered and kept them in its totalitarian system," he said.
"In the east [of Ukraine], the attitudes toward Russia and Orthodoxy are good and even brotherly. But everything is just the opposite in the west. Ukrainians are mentally in a very difficult situation now. Ukraine is an independent state, but its policy is currently aimed at resuming cooperation with Russia after [former Ukrainian President Viktor] Yuschenko wanted to attach Ukraine to NATO," he said.
On May 9, groups of Ukrainian nationalists snatched a wreath from Russian Consul General Oleg Astakhov, which he was going to lay at a military cemetery atop the Hill of Glory in Lviv, and trampled it down. They also attacked veterans and members of NGOs who were present on the Hill of Glory and tried to disrupt the celebration of Victory Day, which prompted police to use truncheons to stop them.
Watch the video of the incident.
