Ukraine's deposed leader blames the US for ‘gangster coup’ in defiant presser

[DonViejo]

By Julian Pecquet

Ukraine's deposed leader vowed to return to power and blamed the U.S. and other Western powers for a “gangster coup” during his first press conference since fleeing to Russia.

“The disturbances and victims are the consequences of the political crisis, the result of the irresponsible policies of the West, which encouraged the [opposition movement] Maidan,” Viktor Yanukovych said during a defiant press conference Friday in Rostov-on-Don, 40 miles from the border with Ukraine.

Yanukovych fled the country when the Ukrainian parliament voted to depose him last weekend after a crackdown on protesters left dozens of people dead. He vowed to return to Ukraine “as soon as the safety of myself and my family can be guaranteed.”

“Nobody overthrew me,” he said in Russian, according to the BBC. “I was forced to leave Ukraine under a threat to my life. And to the lives of my loved ones.”

The Obama administration has sided squarely with the protesters, granting the new temporary government an emergency $1 billion loan this week to shore up the former Soviet country's dismal finances. Russia has denounced the recent developments but said it would not interfere, despite military maneuvers on the border with Ukraine and pro-Russian protests in its strategic Crimean region.



Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/europe/199546-yanukovych-blames-us-for-gangster-coup#ixzz2uevGt5iv