You're reading: RFE/RL: As Ukraine says ‘farewell unwashed Russia,’ Putin says take care in ‘gay’ Europe

MOSCOW – When Ukraine was finally granted visa-free travel to the European Union last week, President Petro Poroshenko hailed it as a “final break” with the “Russian Empire,” quoting 19th-century Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov with a smile: “Farewell, unwashed Russia!”

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