Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Saturday considered an online petition, the author of which proposes to officially rename Russia to Muscovy and replace the terms “Russian” with “Moscow” and “Russian Federation” with “Moscow Federation”, with a request to consider Prime Minister Denys Shmygalya offer, reports Ukrainian Pravda.

Moscow’s reaction did not take long, former President Dmytro Medvedev and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sharply reacted to this initiative, the aforementioned publication reports.

“Russia has actually only existed for 301 years”

The author of the petition, which has already collected more than 25,000 signatures, reminds that “the historical name of Russia is Muscovy.”

“This name was used in Europe and in some Asian languages. This name also appears on many historical maps of the 16th-19th centuries, produced in Europe before and after the renaming of the Muscovite Empire to the Russian Empire,” the petition reads.

The author of the appeal notes that “Russia has actually existed for only 301 years” – since October 22, 1721, when the Moscow Tsar Peter I proclaimed the Moscow Kingdom the “Russian Empire”.

In his answer, Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted that “the issue raised in the petition should be carefully analyzed both from the point of view of the historical and cultural context, and in the light of possible international legal consequences.”

Zelensky also said that he asked Prime Minister Denys Shmygal to carefully analyze this proposal in cooperation with the country’s scientific institutions.

Earlier, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Serhii Kyslytsia, said that Ukraine could pass a law according to which Russia would be called Muscovy.

The answer was given by Medvedev and Zakharova

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sharply criticized the initiative, writing on his Telegram account that Ukraine should be renamed “Schweinisch Bandera-Reich”, pointing out that variants of “Hohlandia”, a derivative of “hohol”, as Russians pejoratively call Ukrainians , and Little Russia is catching up.

“The Supreme Nazi from Kyiv gave instructions to solve the problem of renaming Russia to Muscovy. (…) Our answer? No, certainly not Holland. And definitely not Little Russia. Only the Schweinisch Bandera-Reich. Exactly!” – wrote Medvedev, currently the vice-president of the Security Council of Russia, reports RBC.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s assignment to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to study the possibility of renaming Russia to Muscovy is “evidence of an attempt to create an anti-Russia state,” the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, responded on her Telegram account. .

The petition to change the name of Russia to Muscovy was published on the website of the President of Ukraine at the end of November last year. In February, the petition gathered 25,000 signatures, enough for the initiative to be considered by the country’s authorities, Ukrainian Pravda notes. (Agerpress)