Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has considered a petition calling for Russia’s name to be changed to Muscovy. “The issue raised in the petition needs to be carefully weighed both in terms of historical and cultural context, and in view of possible international legal consequences,” Zelensky wrote in the response to the petition, adding that he had asked Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to work on it together with the scientific institutions.
Signed by 25,000 people, the petition stresses that “the historical name of Russia is Muscovy”. “Russia – notes the text – has only existed for 301 years, since October 22, 1721, when the Tsar of Muscovy Peter I decided that the Muscovite kingdom would become the Russian Empire”.
According to the Ukrainian representative to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine could pass a law so that Russia is called Muscovy, reports Ukrainska Pravda.
Moscow’s reaction was not long in coming. “It is another proof of the attempt to create an ‘anti-Russia’ in Ukraine,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, according to TASS reports.