Russia uses former Ukrainian president Yanukovych as symbol of legitimacy — analyst

Ihor Chalenko, head of the Center for Analysis and Strategies, said this on Espreso TV.

"According to unofficial information, Yanukovych was taken to Minsk, Belarus, several times, and there were such incidents already during the full-scale invasion. They want to use Yanukovych as, well, let's say, a bearer of legitimacy, because Russian official propaganda considers Yanukovych to be the last legitimate president. So, they are now, conditionally speaking, calling Zelenskyy illegitimate, and that's not all. They generally consider Ukrainian authority to date only until 2014. In other words, de facto they treat Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko the same way," he said.

Ihor Chalenko noted that the appearance of the fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych may be linked to a mechanism for establishing an external government.

"Accordingly, the mechanism for installing an external government is at work here. This is a thesis that is being actively voiced by the Russians and pro-Russian forces. And, as far as I understand, Yanukovych is supposed to play the role of someone who will hand over that banner, so to speak, to some government. And this is actually very dangerous, because again we need to preserve the legality and legitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities today, and the reappearance of Yanukovych is, once again, a real danger and an attempt by the Russian Federation, as I understand it, through the Americans to influence the Ukrainian authorities now. Possibly even to accelerate the electoral process," the expert believes.

• On September 1, the former president of Ukraine who fled to Russia, Viktor Yanukovych, stressed that European partners behaved condescendingly toward him during negotiations on EU accession.