What happened to the Ukraine that wanted to look West? The Ukrainian parliament just passed legislation regulating historical truth. The first law (“On Condemning the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes and Prohibiting the Propagation of their Symbols) outlaws “the public denial, particularly in the mass media, of the criminal nature of the Communist totalitarian regime of 1917-1991 in Ukraine and the National-Socialist regime”as well as Soviet and Nazi symbols.
The second law (“On the Legal Status and Honoring of the Memory of the Fighters for the Independence of Ukraine in the 20th Century”) bans publicly insulting those who fought for Ukrainian independence as well as questioning the legitimacy of the struggle for independence. The law justifies these restrictions by claiming that they “insult[] the dignity of the Ukrainian people.” As Christopher Gilley and Per Anders Rudling point out that there is no punishment included in the legislation.
Gilley and Rudling explain the contradictions and possible consequences of this legislation here:
History News Network | The History Wars in Ukraine Are Heating Up.
Ukrainian Independence Day Parade
History Chick in AZ 