Russia rejects U.K. claim of trying to replace Ukraine leader
CTV
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that Russia was seeking to replace Ukraine's government with a pro-Moscow administration, and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev was being considered as a potential candidate.
Britain's Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services, along with Murayev who is the leader of a small party that has no seats in parliament.
Those politicians include Mykola Azarov, a former prime minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in a 2014 uprising, and Yanukovych's former chief of staff, Andriy Kluyev.
"Some of these have contact with Russian intelligence officers currently involved in the planning for an attack on Ukraine," the Foreign Office said.
Murayev's Nashi party -- whose name echoes the former extensive Russian youth movement that supported President Vladimir Putin -- is regarded as sympathetic to Russia, but Murayev on Sunday pushed back, characterizing it as pro-Russia.