Chernomyrdin says Moscow won't apologize for Soviet-era Famine (09/07/03)

Chernomyrdin says Moscow won't apologize for Soviet-era Famine

KYIV - Russia's Ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, said that Moscow doesn't intend to apologize for the Stalin-era famine that killed millions of people in Ukraine and that was denied by Soviet officials for decades, reported the Associated Press.

While Mr. Chernomyrdin acknowledged that Russia had assumed the Soviet Union's obligations as successor to the collapsed regime, he denied that its responsibilities included apologizing for the Famine-Genocide that occurred during the regime of Joseph Stalin.

"We're not going to apologize ... there is nobody to apologize to," the Interfax news agency quoted the envoy as saying on August 6. He added that Russia deserved praise for taking on Soviet-era debts and other obligations but would not "bear the cross" of the famine, Interfax reported.

The Ukrainski Novyny news agency reported that Ambassador Cher-nomyrdin, referring to the fact that Joseph Stalin was a Georgian, said, "Why not ask Georgia to apologize?"

Mr. Chernomyrdin's statements came on the heels of the Ukrainian government's public acknowledgment of the famine that killed some 10 million people in 1932-1933. In June Ukraine declassified more than 1,000 files documenting the famine.

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