Czech president meets with Carpathian Rusyn activists

Czech President Milos Zeman, known for his sympathies
for Russian President Putin, met on Sept. 10 with a delegation of the World
Council of Carpathian Rusyns to discuss greater autonomy for their territory in
Ukraine’s westernmost Zakarpattia region, the radiosvoboda.org news site said
that day. Among those in the delegation was Dmytro Sydor, a priest with the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate who was convicted in Ukraine in
2012 for separatist statements, and Mykhaylo Tiasko, the council’s deputy head.
“The Ukrainian government to this day does not recognize and does not respect
our language and our culture,” he said at the meeting, held to commemorate the
100-year anniversary of Carpathian Rus under the Czechoslovakian government. In
his turn, Zeman promised to raise these concerns with Ukrainian President
Zelensky at their next meeting. Recall, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has called
for autonomy for Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian population of about 150,000, also
concentrated in the Zakarpattia region.