MOSCOW - Russian president Dmitry Medvedev accused Ukraine's pro-western leader yesterday of distorting history for political gain by commemorating a famine engineered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The dispute over next week's anniversary of the 1932/33 famine is part of a long series of rows between the ex-Soviet neighbours over Kiev's shift towards the west.
Historians say that about 7.5 million people died in the famine.
Ukrainian authorities, led by the president, Viktor Yushchenko, have sought to have the famine declared internationally a "genocide". Russia denounces such an interpretation. Mr Medvedev told the Ukrainian leader in a letter that the famine was "the consequence of drought and forced collectivisation . . . To suggest that the main aim was to destroy Ukrainians is to fly in the face of the facts".
- (Reuters)