Arts & Entertainment
Roland Oliphant, Russia Profile
Kiselyov, Bandera is no less controversial within Ukraine itself. The leader of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Petr Simonenko, responded by calling Yushchenko a “scoundrel,” according to the Kommersant daily. And on Sunday a Ukrainian MP burnt his passport in protest at the decision, RIA Novosti reported.But Viktor Yanukovich and Yulia Tymoshenko are competing for voters on both sides of the county’s East-West divide, and tackling the question directly risks alienating at least some section of the population. Even Viktor Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions, which has its roots in the East, avoided criticizing Bandera directly. In its official response to Yushchenko’s announcement, the party said it “would not contribute to the unification of Ukraine.” For Tymoshenko, who relies much more on the West, where Bandera’s memory is taken for granted (in Lvov, the city in Western Ukraine where he proclaimed a Ukrainian republic in
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