Mr. Feldman explained why a monument to Pavel Sudoplatov in Kharkov was never unveiled, and encouraged to fight with «memorial vandalism»

The growth of “memorial vandalism” is becoming a problem and it should be firmly and harshly stopped. Any abuse of memorial symbolism only incites hatred among people, and nothing good will come out of this. The ones, who desecrate the monuments to Bandera, should be punished as equally as the ones who desecrate the memory of Soviet soldiers - all of this is the manifestation of barbaric behavior, - thinks A. Feldman. 

Besides, according to Mr. Feldman, it is necessary to stop the local production spurt of memorial installations that has ambiguous assessment of the Ukrainian society. At that, many municipal cemeteries, where ordinary people are buried, are in a very bad condition. The local authorities should understand that for every questionable idea, their colleagues from other regions will always have their counter-ideas. This absurdity can last indefinitely. In fact, this is the same kind of vandalism, as the destruction of memorials, since they have the same motives. For our European partners this all seems quite bizarre. What kind of visa-free regime, tourists and investments can we talk about?  

Mr. Feldman believes that all Ukrainians should strive for unity and learn to respect opposing points of view. “I can tell you a story: a few years ago, I was approached in Kharkov by the initiative group, with a request to support the construction of the monument to the legendary scout Pavel Sudoplatov. Despite of the fact that much links Mr. Sudoplatov with Kharkov (he lived and worked for several years in Kharkov, he studied at the Kharkov University and was married to a woman from Kharkov), it was evident, that the primary idea was to “annoy” the National-Democrats and the Western part of Ukraine, as Mr. Sudoplatov killed the founder of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, Yevgen Konovalec and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army general, Roman Shukhevych. We had the good sense, not to make this doubtful choice, even though this kind of project would be a success. As much as I don’t like historic characters, I still think that my decision was right, since history should remain in the past,” - said Mr. Feldman. 

As previously reported, in late December 2010 unknown people painted the Soviet Army Monument in Lvov with swastikas. On December 31, 2010, the unknown detonated a monument to Joseph Stalin in Zaporozhe. On January 10, 2011, the unknown painted a memorial in honour of Mr. Bandera in Lutsk with swastikas.