Kremlin advisor brands Ukraine leader 'Nazi'

Kremlin was quick to disown statement by a man widely seen to be President Vladimir Putin's close advisor on Ukraine.

MOSCOW:
A top Kremlin advisor on Friday branded Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko an illegitimate "Nazi" who will bring the "Nazi Frankenstein" to Europe by inking the EU association deal.

The Kremlin was quick to disown the statement by a man widely seen to be President Vladimir Putin's close advisor on Ukraine since the start of the crisis whose view are usually echoed widely on Russian state television.

"They have in Ukraine a clear Nazi government," said Sergei Glazyev in an interview with the BBC in Moscow, adding that "Poroshenko himself is illegitimate" and is "of course" a Nazi himself.

"He supported Nazis, he was on Maidan, he sponsored the so-called Right Sector, and so forth," he said, speaking in English and referring to the radical nationalist group active in Ukrainian protests.

Speaking shortly before Kiev signed a contentious EU association accord in Brussels, Glazyev said that "at least half of the Ukrainian population do not want to be in association with Europe."


He also warned Europe that it has overseen a "renaissance of Ukrainian Nazism" and will be "much surprised when this Nazi Frankenstein... will knock on European countries' doors."

Glazyev alleged that Moscow is not recognising Poroshenko as president, since some parts of Ukraine did not participate in the presidential polls, referring to the two insurgent regions in the east that declared themselves independent after a so-called referendum.

The Kremlin issued a swift denial that Glazyev's views were official ones. "Glazyev's statements do not reflect the official point of view," Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.

Glazyev has sat on the Kremlin economic council since 2012 and accompanied Putin on his last visit to Ukraine, in July 2013.

Seen as the most hawkish of Putin's advisors, Glazyev is known for making sweeping accusations, and in March was put on a US sanctions list for his alleged contribution to the Ukraine unrest.
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