Russia Questions Legitimacy of New Ukraine Leadership, Slams Kiev's 'Dictatorial, Terrorist' Course

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday strongly criticized the new Ukrainian leadership, saying it used dictatorial methods and discriminated against ethnic Russians.

"They have set a course to suppress those who do not agree in various regions of Ukraine using dictatorial and sometimes even terrorist methods," the ministry said in a statement. Moscow also slammed new legislation that it said aimed to "restrict the humanitarian rights of Russians".

Earlier in the day, Moscow questioned the legitimacy of Kiev's new leadership, accusing them of leading an 'armed mutiny' in Ukraine and revealing anti-Russian tendencies in the former Soviet republic.

In the strongest reaction yet from Moscow to the transfer of power from Ukraine's disappeared President Viktor Yanukovych to the overwhelmingly pro-European opposition, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow cannot negotiate with rebels who "carry Kalashnikovs".

He said that Western countries who think otherwise must be deluded.

"Strictly speaking, there is no one for us to communicate with there today," he told Russian news agencies.

To think the new leadership has legitimacy is "some kind of an aberration of perception when people call legitimate what is essentially the result of an armed mutiny," he added.

The Russian foreign ministry issued an even more hostile statement, saying that the Ukrainian parliament has "set a course to suppress those who do not agree in various regions of Ukraine using dictatorial and sometimes even terrorist methods".

"Militants are not disarmed, they refuse to leave the streets that they de-facto control, to go out of administrative buildings, they continue acts of violence," the ministry said.

It also accused "western partners" of a hidden agenda in Kiev, saying: "We see in the position of some of our western partners not concern for the fate of Ukraine but a one-sided geopolitical calculation."

Moscow was especially irked by the decision at the weekend to repeal a law introduced under Yanukovych in 2012 that elevated the status of the Russian language in regions where the population uses it.

The law gave a boost to Russian, which is historically the language of eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, but led to protests and accusations that Yanukovych was splitting the country.

The Russian ministry statement said that by voting the law out, parliament was trying to "restrict the humanitarian rights of Russians".

It fumed at "calls for a total ban on Russian language, lustrations (and) liquidation of parties and organizations" that disagree with Kiev's new policies.

Moscow on Sunday recalled its ambassador to Ukraine for "consultations" about the new political landscape, an admission that "there is no one for us to communicate with" in Kiev, according to Medvedev.

Analysts said the current situation was a result of Russia's relying overly on Yanukovych, whose power base was eroded even in the eastern part of the country, and Moscow's underestimation of the strength of the protest movement in Ukraine.

"Russia is at a loss and disappointed in Yanukovych, who was the horse it had bet on," said analyst Mark Urnov of the Higher School of Economics.

"It's a chain of mistakes by Kremlin analysts... which led to a loss on all fronts in Ukraine."

The new leadership, certain to be oriented toward the West, also spells the end of Vladimir Putin's vision of a Eurasian Union. "It's the end of the idealistic dream of USSR-2," Urnov said.

At a summit with Yanukovych in December Putin praised "brotherly" ties between Ukraine and Russia and hailed the new strategic partnership which also saw Russia pledge $15 billion to its economically stricken ally.

But after Yanukovych fled from Kiev on Saturday, his key allies and even his own party abandoning him, it became clear that Moscow would have to deal with the overwhelmingly pro-European opposition now voting for reforms in parliament.

Russia's Vedomosti business daily on Monday said that Moscow was suffering from "big brother syndrome" and advised the Kremlin to learn from past mistakes.

"It will be difficult to put relations with Kiev in order due to the accumulated distrust on both sides," it said in an editorial. "But we need to do it."