Follow Christiane on social media:
What time is Amanpour on CNN?
Check showtimes to see when Amanpour is on CNN where you are. Or watch online.
Ukraine invites observers to rebuff Putin ‘neo-Nazi’ and ‘anti-Semite’ claims
By Mick Krever, CNN
Responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allegations that there are neo-Nazis threatening the Ukrainian population, Ukraine’s top negotiator with the Crimean government invited “any international organization” to come to Ukraine and see the situation for themselves.
“We are open for any observers to come to any part of Ukraine and to be absolutely sure that Ukraine now outside of the Crimea is absolutely safe,” Petro Poroshenko, a Ukrainian MP and former Foreign Minister told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“We have lots of the different nationalities including Jews in our government. And I think that [Putin] is simply not [an] understandable position.”
The Russian president launched the accusation at a press conference earlier on Tuesday.
"We have a request of the legitimate President Yanukovych to protect the welfare of the local population,” he said. “We have neo-Nazis and Nazis and anti-Semites in parts of Ukraine, including Kiev.”
“You don’t find any tiny arguments to confirm the words of President Putin,” Poroshenko said.
“That would be our very strong answer: ‘Please, come to Ukraine. We are open for any dialogue.’”
There was some slight sign of dialogue – thus far absent – on Tuesday, Poroshenko told Amanpour, though it was not necessarily promising.
“Today we have the first sign of contact between our minister of defense and Russian minister of defense. We have the first contact for other ministers. But it is not a negotiation, unfortunately.”
“We try to do our best to use any opportunity for the peaceful negotiation. But until now we don’t have anything of hope or readiness from the Russian side.”
Poroshenko is known as Ukraine's “Chocolate Billionaire” because of his vast confectionary empire, and has been touted as a possible presidential candidate.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Ukraine on Tuesday and met with Poroshenko, among
others.
Kerry said that there is “not a single piece of credible evidence” to support Russian justifications for intervention in Crimea.
“Russia has talked about Russian-speaking citizens being under siege. They're not,” Kerry said in Kiev.
“I think this is very important to have Secretary Kerry today here in Kiev,” Poroshenko told Amanpour.
A “friend in need is a friend indeed.”
In his press conference earlier in the day, Putin said described the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych as an “anti-constitutional coup and armed seizure of power,” and said he is the legitimate president of the country.
“His era is finished and he is a criminal,” Poroshenko said. “He is a war criminal.”
@camanpour on Twitter
People who worry about anti-Semites in Ukraine's revolution should read the biography of one of its main financial backers, Igor Kolomoisky, president of the European Council of Jewish Communities, or read: http://eajc.org/page34/news43307.html
What the MP told or tells you is certainly more trustworthy than what Putin says.
And: I can tell you – based on impressions and from experiences gained through recent travels in Ukraine – that NEO-NAZI and ANTI-SEMITIC elements and groups among the Ukrainian forces who have caught the power in Kiev and Ukraine are omni-present, but thanks God still a relatively small minority. However, history has taught us that it's always minorities that bring the greatest tragedies upon the societies they were born into. . See communists, fascists, nazis, racists, etc.
In Ukraine there is no immediate need for new observers in order to reaffirm or reject the existence of virulently extremist fascists and racial hater mobs. We have already seen them, heard them, and witnessed their criminal – up to murderous – provocative acts that contributed – in addition to the primary responsibility of the former president – to the blood bath in Kiev.
Madame Amanpour, you seem to have sold or lost your political compass. You're playing games. Aren't you, lady?
BTW: Your motivation for dirty coups became most clear two (?) days ago during your direct attack on Wolf B. who happens to be a Jew and a Zionist, two attributes you never liked much more than some of the "revolutionaries" in Ukraine ...
It is like Syria kills unarmed women, men, children, al-Qaida, al-Qaida, now three years later al-Qaida is there. These guys cry Nazi, same thing mobile death squads, mass graves of ethnic Russians and speakers. Their statements now are as true as Assad's were 3 years ago. Cry wolf, self-fullfilling prophecy, careful what you wish for. Like Assad that is what they want, the narrative shape the situation. They care little about ethnic Russian or speaking or Ukrainian. Lesser evil and it works you see in Syria, without push back from Kerry on the source of the terror, the magnate for terror.
Men like you created Hydrogen Bomb, Men like you created Weapons of Mass Destruction. You know what it takes to be creative...is to create a life. Having said that, Judgment Day is inevitable. And by the way, I was and am and will always be sorry that I saw ' EXORCISM' especially when that little girl says 'Will Juggular F-Word you as well as the tormented and Sacreligious images of a very very respectable Noble Lady to us.
As for Crimea, let nature take its course for there is no stopping what can not be stopped.
Belgium
BBC
"Ukraine: Far-right armed with bats patrol Kiev"
www. bbc. com/news/world-europe-26394980
Here is a you tube clip from Russia Today showing a old Soviet vets and their families abused by far right goons at Victory Day cemetary cermonies in Lviv , start 0:30:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luG8hrhRURI
When will someone point out to Mr. Putin that Mr. Yanukovych relinquished any right to rule a country from which he stole billions of dollars? Why SHOULD anyone accept the authority of a criminal? Period!
if it looks likes, walks and smells like a nazi? maybe its a nazi!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pN9u7zur2I