© Pavel Palamarchuk / ReutersOleg Lyashko, Verkhovna Rada deputy and Ukrainian presidential candidate.
says the leader of the Radical Party, who is angling to be appointed the country's prime minister. The unexpected comparison between the leaders of Nazi Germany and the leader of one of the major nations that defeated him comes from
Oleg Lyashko, who heads the ultranationalist Radical Party."No business can survive by export contracts only. We need large-scale construction of roads, houses, infrastructure," he told the newspaper
Segodnya. "We shouldn't reinvent the bicycle. That was how Hitler and Roosevelt acted." He added to the surprised correspondent that he "wasn't talking about Hitler in a positive way." "But Germany's economy was growing because of military contracts," he added.
Lyashko is among the more controversial Ukrainian MPs. His party saw a surge of popularity amid the political crisis of 2013-14. It had a single MP - Lyashko himself - in the previous parliament elected in 2012, but now has 21, and its leader claims it would double its strength, if a snap election were called now.
The Radical Party was part of the now-defunct ruling coalition, which put forward Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk as head of the Ukrainian government, but has since gone into opposition. Lyashko is convinced that he is better suited to do the job and is pitching his candidacy to potential allies to form a new coalition. "They are all discussing candidacies for the PM's chair now. [Finance Minister Natali] Yaresko, [Parliament Speaker Vladimir] Groisman, Yatsenyuk, Lyashko. The program is what matters, not the name of the prime minister. We suggest a program. They are discussing names," he told the newspaper.
The program includes some suggestions radical enough to befit the name of Lyashko's party.
One is to arm Ukraine with nuclear weapons. "Ukraine must for the sake of its security recreate its nuclear weapons potential. We have everything we need. We have the scientific expertise, uranium, schematics, the Yuzhmash plant, which can build nuclear missiles,"he said.
Comment: Brash and outlandish, Lyashko is being rhetorically compared to Trump. Hard to imagine another "Donald-type" out there and both running, respectively, for president. In addition to his other mentioned transgressions,
Lyashko went to prison for embezzlement and, in 2014, the Kremlin marked him as an enemy of the state.
Comment: The Yemeni people want former President Saleh to return and came out enmass to see him in this rare appearance and show their support. The Houthis are an independent sect and have been fighting for the Yemeni people since the West instigated the Yemen 'Arab Spring.' The Saudi/US/UK coalition has set the stage for AQAP and now ISIS involvement. No matter what happens in the upcoming peace negotiations, the radical militants are a deadly threat and, with covert Western support, could be the harder fight.