With a mandate, but without a passport

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on the termination of citizenship of the Verkhovna Rada deputy Andrei Artemenko, accused of anti -state activities. This was announced by the leader of the "Radical Party" Oleg Lyashko.

“The President of Ukraine today signed a decree on the termination of the citizenship of Ukraine of the People’s Deputy of Ukraine Andrei Artemenko in connection with the voluntary acquisition of Canada’s citizenship in 2005,” wrote Lyashko. “This is a unique and first case in 26 years of independence when the state official answered for violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, which provides for only one - Ukrainian! - Citizenship.”

Lyashko noted that in connection with this circumstance it would demand from the Verkhovna Rada to terminate the deputy powers of Artemenko ahead of schedule. He also added that according to his information, on Saturday morning, Artemenko flew to Vienna and expressed the hope that upon his return he would hand over a Ukrainian passport.

“Now we will demand that the parliament at the first plenary meeting on May 16 has terminated the deputy powers of Artemenko,” the leader of the Radical Party said. Lyashko also expressed the hope that Artemenko, who is now in Vienna, would give a Ukrainian passport upon return.

On February 19, The New York Times reported the plan of sanctions from Russia proposed by Artemenko. It was alleged that the deputy in early February transferred this document to the then adviser to the US President for National Security Michael Flynn. At the same time, Artemenko assured that his initiative was approved by the "high -ranking assistants" by Vladimir Putin.

The first paragraph of the plan was to hold a referendum in Ukraine on the possibility of transferring Crimea to Russia for a period of 50 to 100 years. The second point is the return of the Donbass to Ukraine and the amnesty of the militants of the DPR and the LPR who did not commit serious crimes.

It was noted that Flynn did not have time to get acquainted with the document, as he was forced to resign . As it turned out, the official misinformed the vice president Mike Pence regarding the details of his conversations with the Russian Ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak. In fact, during these conversations, the lifting of sanctions from Moscow was discussed.

Artemenko himself, commenting on the publication, said that in fact the document was prepared "several dozen deputies from different factions."

After the appearance of the article by The New York Times, the faction of the radical party, from which Artemenko was elected to Radu, excluded the deputy from his composition and demanded that he hand over the mandate.

Meanwhile, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured that they know nothing about the plan of lifting sanctions in the Kremlin.

On February 21, the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea opened against Artemenko a case of state treason for preparing this plan. Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the country, the deputy threatens from 12 to 15 years in a colony with or without confiscation of property.

The Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko said that he would highly like to bring to Rada an idea of ​​the deprivation of Artemenko of deputy immunity. “This is an arrest article (111th - ed.),” The prosecutor general explained.

Artemenko - deputy chairman of the Rada Committee on European integration issues. He repeatedly called for the restoration of ties with the countries of the former USSR, including Russia. In addition, Artemenko is the initiator of the draft law on the introduction of changes to the legislation of Ukraine that allow dual citizenship.