Society

Question raised about stripping Potap of the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine - VIDEO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi and acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine Oleksandr Poklad to work through the issue raised in an electronic petition addressed to him concerning the stripping of singer and producer Oleksiy Potapenko (Potap) of the honorary title of "Honored Artist of Ukraine."

This is stated in the response to the petition on the website of the president of Ukraine, 1news.az reports, citing Ukrainian News. V. Zelensky notes, in particular, that the stripping of state awards may be carried out:

- on the basis of a court conviction by which a person awarded a state award is convicted of a grave or especially grave crime, a criminal offense against the foundations of the national security of Ukraine, against peace, the security of humanity and the international legal order;

- on the basis of a decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the application of special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions).

Grounds for applying a sanction in the form of stripping state awards of Ukraine may include the commission by the awarded person of actions that popularize or propagandize the aggressor state and its government bodies, representatives of the government bodies of the aggressor state and their actions, that create a positive image of the aggressor state, that justify or recognize as lawful the occupation of the territory of Ukraine.

Proposals on the application of sanctions are submitted for consideration by the National Security and Defense Council, in particular, by the Cabinet of Ministers and the Security Service of Ukraine.

The response to the petition notes that materials on the application of sanctions must contain sufficient information, a description of the actions and facts confirming the existence of grounds for the indisputable application of sanctions, proper justification of the future decision, as well as an indication of the legal grounds.

"In view of the above, I have forwarded the aforementioned petition to the Prime Minister of Ukraine S.F. Koretskyi and the acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Major General O.V. Poklad, with a request to consider the issue raised in the petition in accordance with their competence in the manner established by law," V. Zelensky said.

It is noted that in early September an electronic petition addressed to V. Zelensky demanding that the stripping of singer and producer Oleksiy Potapenko (Potap) of the honorary title of "Honored Artist of Ukraine" be initiated gathered the 25,000 votes required for consideration. The grounds cited for this are Potapenko's public activity, which, in the opinion of the petition's authors, does not correspond to the status of a person awarded a state award of Ukraine and contains signs of popularizing the Russian cultural and linguistic environment and of public interaction with representatives of the aggressor state.

We emphasize that the petition appeared after Potap posted a video on social networks in which he, together with singer Nastya Kamenskih, mocked demands to speak Ukrainian.