LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – In view of the dramatic situation in Ukraine, the Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela and his government are under constant pressure to take a clear position and unequivocal stand on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Leader of the Opposition and Nationalist Party Leader Bernard Grech and Independent candidate Arnold Cassola declared separately that it is completely unjustifiable that the Malta police removed and cleaned up flowers and candles from outside the Russian embassy immediately after the protest held on Friday evening. Grech said the Labour government has failed to suspend Russian applications for Maltàs golden passport scheme and described as “shameful” the order given to the police to remove protest symbols placed in front of the Russian embassy in Kappara on Friday.
Independent candidate Cassola said that the Malta police should not be the street cleaners for Valdimir Putin. Rather they should be guardians for the peoplès right to protest against a fascist despot. He asked the Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri for a full explanation. In his appeal to the Maltese Premier, Cassola added that the Maltese government should ban Russian flights from Malta airspace, vote for Russia to be excluded from SWIFT and strip all Russian oligarchs of Maltese citizenship.
Meanwhile, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi revealed that on Saturday a private jet left Moscow and after a short stop in Cyprus and Malta, went to Montenegro. On his Facebook page, Azzopardi asked Maltese PM Robert Abela to give more details about this development and asked if there were any Russians onboard being helped to evade the international sanctions.
For the third consecutive night, Ukrainians in Malta, along with other peace activists have returned to Valletta protesting Russiàs invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian community in Malta called on the Maltese government to offer “any kind of support” which could be either financial or political, and which would be very helpful for the Ukrainians.
“Excluding Ukraine from the dark red list would make it easier for Ukrainians to come over without any restrictions,” some protesters explained, in reference to Maltàs adopted system during the pandemic and which classifies countries according to Covid-19 related risks and imposes different restrictions.
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews