MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced as an act of anarchy the robbery of Russian passengers on board a train in Ukraine by ultranationalists last week.
On Friday, a group of uniformed men boarded a train from Moscow in the southwestern Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia under the pretext of an ID check.
“Passengers with Russian passports were forced to hand over their money and valuables. The robbery was accompanied by ‘political brainwashing,’” the ministry said in a statement.
The men were wearing uniforms of a WWII-era nationalist group, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which was responsible for massacring thousands of Polish, Jewish and Russian civilians in western Ukraine during and after WWII.
“It seems as if the anarchy of the 20th century is being revived in Ukraine,” the ministry said, adding that local police refused to listen to official complaints by Russian citizens.
Moscow has repeatedly expressed grave concern about the rise of ultra-right nationalism in Ukraine, especially in western regions where ultranationalist and anti-Russian sentiments are traditionally strong.
Last Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the new government in Ukraine that came to power following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych last month, saying their seizure of power has allowed extremists to strongly influence the country’s civil and political agenda.
Putin also said that Ukrainian "nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites" bore full responsibility for the civil crisis in the country, which prompted people of Crimea to vote in favor of seceding from Ukraine and rejoining Russia.
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