Patrushev: US has double standards on coups

The secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said that the comparison of the US and European response to conflicts in Ukraine and Yemen reveals the policy of double standards in the interpretation of coups.

"I would like to emphasize the clear double standards, which the United States alongside the allegedly ‘progressive’ public traditionally apply to assess similar events," Izvestia daily cited him as saying.

"A parallel to the situation in Ukraine is coming to mind. In Ukraine, the legitimately elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, just like Yemeni President Hadi, was forced to flee Kiev and then left the country. But in his case, neither the Americans nor the Europeans agreed to recognize those events as a state coup. Instead, they immediately announced that the president who fled the country had lost his legitimacy as the head of state," Patrushev  explained.

In Yemen, in 2011, as Patrushev reminded, anti-government riots with demands of reforms flared up in 2011. "The Tunisian example, where the people managed to change power, inspired the Yemeni people. The protests forced the then President Saleh to resign. President Hadi was elected in early elections. However, the Yemenis’ hopes for a better future did not come true. Their lives did not change for the better," Patrushev stressed.Mass protests resumed in Yemen in mid-August 2014. "The Houthi insurgents are playing the leading role in these events, who were demanding an independent foreign policy free from external influence. They established control over the northern part of Yemen, that is why President Hadi ran away to Aden in the south, where his supporters had concentrated their forces, but later left the country," the secretary of the Russian Security Council added.The US and some of its allies, he said, had classified the events in Yemen as a state coup and called for creating conditions for Hadi’s return to power. "By the way, Hadi’s term in office had expired by that time," Patrushev noted."The escalation of the Yemeni conflict was a source of profound concern for Russia and the world community," he concluded.

 

In Yemen, in 2011, as Patrushev reminded, anti-government riots with demands of reforms flared up in 2011. "The Tunisian example, where the people managed to change power, inspired the Yemeni people. The protests forced the then President Saleh to resign. President Hadi was elected in early elections. However, the Yemenis’ hopes for a better future did not come true. Their lives did not change for the better," Patrushev stressed.

Mass protests resumed in Yemen in mid-August 2014. "The Houthi insurgents are playing the leading role in these events, who were demanding an independent foreign policy free from external influence. They established control over the northern part of Yemen, that is why President Hadi ran away to Aden in the south, where his supporters had concentrated their forces, but later left the country," the secretary of the Russian Security Council added.

The US and some of its allies, he said, had classified the events in Yemen as a state coup and called for creating conditions for Hadi’s return to power. "By the way, Hadi’s term in office had expired by that time," Patrushev noted.
"The escalation of the Yemeni conflict was a source of profound concern for Russia and the world community," he concluded.