Ukraine outraged at Putin’s Debrecen award
Ukraine considers it unacceptable that the University of Debrecen is awarding Russian President Vladimir Putin the title of “honorary citizen”. This was the conclusion of the article which Ukrainian Ambassador to Hungary Liubov Nepop sent to a Hungarian news outlet, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported.
According to the ambassador, perhaps, few years ago nobody would have paid any attention to this, but in light of recent developments in Ukraine, it is unacceptable.
“Since 2014, the name Vladimir Putin has been synonymous with violations of international law, including the Budapest Memorandum, the illegal annexation of the Crimea, and waging a hybrid war against the friendly neighboring power, Ukraine, a war which up to now has cost more than ten thousand of our countrymen their lives,” Nepop wrote.
She also pointed out that Peter Korosparta, a member of the university senate and chairman of the doctoral and student staff who was among those who voted to award the Russian president this title, approves of the annexation of the Crimea, and does not agree with supporting the Ukrainian government, saying that "one needs to go to Zakarpattia to see what the reality is".
“In his opinion, Putin is not recognized as a military criminal, and countries sometimes change their borders through war. Furthermore, the only thing Russia has done is taking back territory which has always belonged to it,” the ambassador wrote.
The ambassador hopes than neither the committee nor other members of the senate agree with their colleague’s position.
Putin was awarded the title “Civis Honoris Causa” by the University of Debrecen during his recent official visit to Hungary.
As the article states, the university based this decision on the fact that “the Hungarian and Russian governments are assigning a significant role to the University of Debrecen in the construction program of the second phase of the Paks II Nuclear Power Plant”. The University of Debrecen is collaborating with Rosatom to construct a nuclear power plant which will cost an estimated 12.5 billion euros. Budapest may receive these funds as a loan from Russia.
Earlier photographs of Putin’s holiday home near the Finnish border were circulating online. Officially the house is registered to Putin’s close friends, but locals claim that this property belongs to the Russian President himself.