MOSCOW, March 18 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the "so-called" authorities in Ukraine on Tuesday, saying they had stolen power in a coup and had opened the way for "extremists" who would stop at nothing to determine the future of Ukraine.
"Those who were behind recent events, they were ... preparing a coup d'etat, another one. They were planning to seize power, stopping at nothing. Terror, murder, pogroms were used," he told a joint session of parliament, calling them "nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites".
"It is primarily they how are deciding how Ukraine lives today. The so-called Ukrainian authorities introduced a scandalous law on the revision of the language policy, which directly violated the rights of the national minorities."
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