Denis Voronenkov, the former Russian lawmaker who fled in October and has since taken Ukrainian citizenship, and his wife, Maria Maksakova,who is also a former Russian lawmaker, have been speaking to RFE/RL's Christopher Miller:
Seen As Turncoats By Moscow, Exiled Duma Pair Blasts Kremlin From Kyiv
KYIV -- Denis Voronenkov, the former Russian lawmaker who fled in October and has since taken Ukrainian citizenship, has come ready to chastise President Vladimir Putin, who he once supported, and his native Russia.
When I arrive at this Georgian restaurant down the street from the Ukrainian parliament building, Voronenkov and his wife, Maria Maksakova, a renowned opera singer who is also a former Russian lawmaker, have already started in on beer, eggplant wraps, and a vegetable salad dressed with walnut paste.
In his first interview with a foreign journalist since fleeing to Ukraine, Voronenkov fires off talking points while tearing through a fluffy, racket-shaped piece of bread. Dressed in a sportcoat and turtleneck sweater with a luxury watch on his wrist, he compares present-day Russia with "Nazi Germany," says its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region was "a mistake" and "illegal," claims Russian security services "hounded" him out of the country, and calls charges brought against him back home "fake" and "political."
A former Communist Party legislator elected in the 2011 Russian vote viewed by many as rigged, Voronenkov is perhaps best known for co-authoring the 2014 bill in the State Duma that banned the foreign ownership of Russian media, a move Bloomberg View columnist Leonid Bershidsky called "perhaps the single worst thing that happened to press freedom as an institution in Putin's Russia."
Now, though, Voronenkov appears to have flipped, becoming a fiery critic of most everything he once supported in Russia and a citizen of Ukraine, to boot.
The way Maksakova tells it, she and Voronenkov left Moscow and most of their possessions behind and flew to Kyiv in October with no clear agenda but to escape pressure from the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's successor agency to the KGB.
Read the entire article here.
More on the U.S. secretary of state's comments today:
It does seem to have been a bad day in the east:
Another item with relevance to Ukraine from our news desk:
U.S. Defense Secretary Says Russia Must 'Prove Itself' Before NATO Ties Fully Restored
BRUSSELS -- U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says Russia must "prove itself" before Moscow can return to "a partnership of sorts with NATO."
Mattis's remarks on February 16 at the end of a two-day NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels are seen as easing fears in some European capitals that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration might relax U.S. pressure on Russia over its aggressive actions as part of an effort to build a closer relationship with Moscow.
Mattis said Russia "has to live by international law just like we expect all mature nations on this planet to do."
He noted that NATO political leaders will try to find common ground with Moscow but said "we are not in a position right now to collaborate on a military level."
NATO cut some military ties with Russia, but did not cut political ties with Moscow after Russia invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
The alliance has held five NATO-Russia Councils, but little progress has been made in improving relations.
Mattis also spoke on February 16 about allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and was now trying to interfere in the 2017 French presidential and German parliamentary elections -- saying "right now I would just say there is very little doubt that they have either interfered or they have attempted to interfere in a number of elections in democracies."
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on February 16 that Russia is prepared to improve ties with the Pentagon, but said attempts by Washington to seek cooperation from a "position of strength would be futile."