UNESCO’s reaction to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal’s ruling on the return of the Scythian gold to Ukraine can be interpreted as the recognition of its impotence in this situation, deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy said on Wednesday.
"The Scythian gold saga in quite demonstrative: UNESCO has hidden cowardly behind diplomatic wordings and thus it recognized its impotence," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to Tolstoy, the decision to hand over the Scythian gold to Ukraine can be compared with a situation when "an elephant was let into a shop with expensive china." "They are trying to take unique historical artifacts away from the country, which has saved Palmyra, moreover, they are trying to take them away from Crimea, the legal owner, and hand them over to an under-state, whose national hobby is to ruin historical heritage and sell out everything that can be sold," he noted.
He noted that UNESCO’s reaction to the situation demonstrates that the organizations "is worrying more about its own budget than about education and culture." "It looks like there is no organization in the world that is beyond politics," the Russian senior lawmaker added.
