Natalia Vitrenko, the fiery leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, is asking for international support to heat up her long-running campaign against the NATO military alliance.
Vitrenko’s video appeal in both Russian and English appeared on her YouTube channel. During the “dear comrades” speech, she struggled to read from her notes and made numerous pronunciation errors.
The NATO bombing to oust Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has motivated Vitrenko into action.
"Developments in Libya have shown that [for ] NATO, rules of international law [do] not exist,” Vitrenko, 59, said. “NATO troops, trampling the constitution of Ukraine, log on to our territory. Now that’s a NATO ship prepares to enter the port of Odessa.”
Ironically, the rough English translation of her speech fully resembles the English text provided by Google translate online service.
Vitrenko’s reaction followed the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to allow the American ship Grasp to use the Odessa port and remain in the territorial waters of Ukraine for the Sea Breeze military trainings from June 6-18 .
Vitrenko asks for donations to the all-Ukrainian public organization Gift of Life, which she founded in 2000. “But we need help in organizing the second anti-NATO front. Submit your application. Provide financial assistance. Protect the world from the aggressors.”
Vitrenko ran for president unsuccessfully in 1999, when she was rumored to be privately working with ex-President Leonid Kuchma while publicly criticizing him. She was not hurt during an attack on Oct. 2, 1999, when two men threw hand grenades into a crowd of her supporters during a presidential campaign stop near Kryvyi Rih. Two brothers, Serhiy and Vladimir Ivanchenko, were found guilty of the attack by a Dnipropetrovsk court.
She also vociferously protested the NATO bombing campaign in the former Yugoslavia in 1999, making it a centerpiece of her anti-Western campaign.
Nataliya Vitrenko’s speech
Читайте об этом на www.kyivpost.ua
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Horban can be reached at [email protected]
