Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has considered a petition calling for Russia’s name to be changed to Muscovy. “The issue raised in the petition needs to be carefully considered both in terms of the historical and cultural context and in terms of possible international legal ramifications,” Zelenskyy wrote in response to the petition, adding that he asked Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to do so have been working on it together with the scientific institutions.
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The petition, signed by 25,000 people, emphasizes that “the historical name of Russia is Muscovy”. “Russia – the text states – has only existed for 301 years, since October 22, 1721, when the Tsar of Moscow Peter I decided that the Moscow Kingdom would become the Russian Empire”.
According to Ukraine’s UN representative Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine could pass a law to call Russia Moskovy, reports Ukrainska Pravda.
Moscow’s reaction was not long in coming. “This is further evidence of an attempt to create an ‘anti-Russia’ in Ukraine,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to TASS reports.