Yanis Varoufakis episode with a Russian activist at the MERA25 event

Since Friday night, a video has been circulating on Twitter of Yanis Varoufakis’ episode with a Russian activist during an event organized by MERA25 on February 22, 2022.

The Russian activist – opposed to Putin and the invasion of Ukraine – also claimed that Yanis Varoufakis kicked him out of the MERA25 event because he didn’t like his views. In his blog, Artem Temirov described what happened at a public event entitled: “From crisis to war: a year later.”

At first he said: “On Monday, February 20, we were invited to speak at an event. There we spoke with members of Greek leftists, anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements about the resistance in Ukraine and the anti-war movement in Russia. Two days later, a friend invited us to a public event organized by the party Greek politician MeRA25 titled “From Crisis to War: A Year Later”.

He then refers to his episode with the MeRA25 chairperson: “During the session I stood up to express my disagreement with the position of the speakers. I started with an important statement, that I am from Russia. Or Ukraine I suggested that their sources of information were limited and that they were not interested in the opinions of real people.

Of all the speakers, only Angela Dimitrakaki knew me and my wife. A few days before the event dedicated to solidarity with Ukraine, he had listened to our speeches and spoke positively about my wife in her speech. However, Angela interrupted me and asked, “Who are you? Who brought you here?” Even though he already knew the answer to the question.

Then Yanis Varoufakis called me a fascist and they turned off the microphone. My wife and I (the only Ukrainian in the room) were removed from the event without being allowed to say another word.

In the video, my desire to apologize and soften my feelings is clearly visible, but we almost walked out of the room and Yanis Varoufakis kept yelling after me that I was a fascist.

It is not entirely clear how a politician can accuse a foreigner of fascism without even bothering to ask him his opinion. But as Putin’s regime in Russia says, “Parliament is not a place for debate.

I can’t understand how people who identify as left-wing politicians and internationalists can repeat Russian propaganda word for word about the supposed Ukrainian national regime that took power in 2014. You don’t even need to know anyone from the Ukrainian left personally – you just need to use the internet to know that it is In the last parliamentary elections of 2020, the Right Sector coalition managed to secure only 2.17% of the vote.”

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Varoufakis pushed and stomped with his Russian anti-government backers as he deconstructed in a few words Putin’s narrative about Ukraine.

Wonderful Democrats. pic.twitter.com/tav1sNeAzT

– common sense || (@soso0o0o) March 10, 2023