RICHMOND SAYS ‘GET YURI OUT OF HERE NOW’
and St Petersburg in anger at the call for mobilisation.
Police arrested more than 1,000 protesters in rallies across Russia, OVD-Info police monitor reported.
Footage of demonstrators gathering on a street in Moscow showed cops decked out in antiriot gear storming the crowds, with many chanting “No to war”, social media tweets said.
Protest
Officers lashed out at protestors with batons and beat one young man around the head as they shoved his face into the window of a Moscow restaurant, a video showed.
Other footage showed a young woman lying unconscious on the street with several officers standing over her before they carried her away. Social media users claimed she was dead but the claims could not be verified.
A FINE Gael TD has called for the Russian Ambassador to Ireland to be booted out — and for Ukrainian refugees to be housed in his embassy.
Outspoken TD Neale Richmond, who is Fine Gael’s European Affairs spokesperson, said in light of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest incendiary comments, his Ambassador — Yuri Filatov, should be expelled from this country. “The Russian Ambassador continues to work here as a tool of the brutal Putin regime, launching verbal attacks on our own Government and spreading tragic disinformation about this war.
“He and his entire staff should be expelled.
“Perhaps the Embassy could be seized and used to accommodate Ukrainian refugees fleeing his country’s continuing attacks on Ukraine,” he told this paper.
Outrage
Speaking yesterday morning Russian President Vladimir Putin caused international outrage when he once again threatened the use of nuclear weapons — and then announced the subscription of his people to fight in the Ukraine war.
“The West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against us. If its territorial integrity is threatened, Russia will use all the means at its disposal to protect our people. This is not a bluff,” Putin said.
And speaking to this paper, Mr Richmond said Putin’s comments are a major escalation in the unfolding Ukraine crisis.
“These comments are a significant escalation in Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine.
“A ‘partial mobilisation’ in Russia will prolong this tragic, illegal conflict & increase deaths, including of Russian conscripts and many more Ukrainian citizens.
Remarks
“The fact their Embassy based on my own constituency remains open is extremely disappointing,” he added.
A request for comment from the Russian Ambassador to Ireland went unanswered yesterday.
Meanwhile Taoiseach Michael Martin also condemned Putin’s remarks yesterday.
Speaking at the annual Ploughing Championships, Mr Martin said he was “very, very concerned” and stated that Putin’s speech was “a grave speech in terms of the import of what he is saying”.
“It’s an attempt to annex territory from the Ukraine, and coerce people in Ukraine,” he said.
Mr Martin went on to say that his government