Today there is no procedure for depriving Lukashenko of title of honorary doctor of Kyiv's Shevchenko National University - elected rector Buhrov
Newly elected rector of Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko National University Volodymyr Buhrov says that there is currently no procedure according to which President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, whom the EU and the United States do not recognize as legally elected, can be stripped of the title of honorary doctor of the university.
"In fact, there is no procedure today. We live in a state governed by the rule of law, so there must be a mechanism for depriving of such titles," Buhrov said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
"Now the Historical and Memorial Commission has given a conclusion to the Academic Council of the University that there has not been such a precedent in any years. And the discussion has been suspended there, but it was not completed. This issue is of a political and legal nature. Therefore, I will propose to the Academic Council to create a commission of specialists: lawyers, historians and political scientists in order to develop some kind of vision of the possibility of deprivation, so that the Academic Council would accept this vision. If there is such a political and legal opportunity, this should be done," he added.
The elected rector of Shevchenko University stressed that as a member of the Academic Council he would vote for such a deprivation.
Commenting that member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party Viktor Sadovnichy is also an honorary doctor of the university, and member of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation Andrei Shutov has the distinction of the Academic Council of the university, Buhrov said that, unlike Lukashenko, they are not politicians, but academic workers , therefore, there were no warnings there.
"I know about Sadovnichy. Lomonosov Moscow State University, where V.A. Sadovnichy is the rector, he was our partner for decades. And back in September 2000, the Academic Council of the Kyiv Shevchenko University awarded a title of an honorary doctor to Viktor Sadovnichy, a Ukrainian from Slobozhanshchyna, as a talented mathematician, as a colleague and friend of Kyiv Shevchenko University," said the elected rector.
"I don't remember about Shutov, I think he's the dean of the political science faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, but I'll take a look. He was distinguished not as a politician, but as a colleague-teacher," he added.