Ukrainian woman throws sauerkraut at Russian politician
KIEV, UKRAINE: Security personnel protect with umbrellas Speaker of Ukraine’s parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn during a fight at a parliament sitting in Kiev on April 27, 2010. Fighting broke out and smoke bombs and eggs were thrown Tuesday as Ukraine’s parliament erupted into chaos as it ratified a bitterly controversial deal with Russia extending the lease of a key naval base.
An angry Ukrainian woman threw sauerkraut at a pro-Kremlin politician during a press event in Kyiv Monday, reported Interfax-Ukraine.
She reportedly shouted "Ukrainophobe! Chauvinists, get out of Ukraine!" at Russian nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and then threw fermented cabbage at him — an appropriate move for a presumably sourfaced woman.
Zhirinovsky had used the press event to urge greater cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow, warning otherwise the nation risks becoming a "second-class citizen" of the European Union, reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
It was unclear whether those were the comments that prompted the sauerkraut attack, which did not injure Zhirinovsky. However, it did not go unnoticed. The Azeri-Press Agency details his reaction:
“Where are my bodyguards? Remove this schizophrenic woman!” Zhirinovsky shouted, before asking journalists at the news conference to explain what the word "Ukrainophobe" meant. “It means that you don’t love Ukraine,” they said, but Zhirinovsky protested that he had always called for friendly relations between Russia and Ukraine.
This is debatable. As the leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party, Zhirinovsky has drawn fire for seeming to question the sovereignty of former Soviet nations like Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and others, according to RFE/RL.
It was not immediately clear if the woman who threw the sauerkraut was a journalist, an activist, or both.
The Kyiv Post said the opposition group Coalition of Participants in the Orange Revolution had taken responsibility for the incident. Ukraine's Interfax described the attacker as a journalist, however, noting that she has since gone into hiding.