Moscow has repeatedly urged the EU and the US to persuade Kiev to discuss the current political and social issues in Ukraine before the May 25 presidential elections. A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry says that Kiev’s reluctance to have a dialogue with the south-eastern regions impedes the peacekeeping process in Ukraine. The People’s Republic of Donetsk’ declared itself an independent country on Monday, and, just two hours after doing so, asked to join Russia. Its self-proclaimed leader Denis Pushilin said no further referendum was needed to ask for accession into Russia. The Voice of Russia talked to Francis Boyle, professor at the Illinois College of Law and the author of “Talking America’s Toughest Questions”.
Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Kommersant newspaper that Vladimir Putin would formulate his opinion on the plebiscites after their official results were made public.
The Kremlin’s press service issued a statement, saying that Moscow respects the will of the people of Donetsk and Lugansk and hopes that the practical realization of the outcome of the referendums will be carried out ‘in a civilized manner’.
President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Swiss President and Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Didier Burkhalter to discuss the situation in Ukraine in the wake of Sunday’s referendums. Both sides called for fostering direct dialogue between the authorities in Kiev and representatives of southeastern regions.
The OSCE said in a statement that its roadmap to defuse the crisis in Ukraine has been supported by Russia, the United States, the European Union and the Kiev government.
The European Union Council has refused to recognize the referendum in southeastern Ukraine. EU Foreign Ministers added 13 people and two businesses to its blacklist for allegedly ‘undermining or threatening’ Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has arrived in Kiev amid attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis and support a roadmap plan to peace outlined by the OSCE.
Ukraine’s interim Government has supported the idea of a second round of talks in Geneva to defuse the crisis in the country. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has put it bluntly that new four-party talks are not promising. What do you make of all of this?
F.B. I agree. It does seem to me that if there is any progress here, Kiev is going to have to meet with the people there in the Donetsk Republic and at Luganks, but so far I’ve seen no evidence that they intend to do so. So, it does not look good at all.
As you know, President Putin has agreed to this OSCE roadmap that the President of Switzerland is trying to broker right now through Kiev. But again, it is really going to depend on the support by the Obama administration and, regretfully, I don’t really see that support there.
I think Obama fully intends to run through these May 25 pseudo elections that are only going to make the situation worse and lead to more divisions there in Ukraine.
As we’ve seen he sent the Head of the CIA over there – Brennan – to order a crackdown in the east. Then, he sent Vice President Biden over there to resume the crackdown and you had the massacre in Odessa.
So, I regret to say, I haven’t seen any change in policy on the part of the Obama administration.
Do you think that Kiev and the leaders of the self-declared republics are going to be able to come to some kind of an agreement? And what they can agree upon?
It might be possible before the situation degenerates into a civil war. But it is really going to require Obama to order his little gang of neo-Nazi thugs in Kiev to meet with the leaders in Donetsk and Luganks. And so far Turchinov and others in this junta in Kiev have ruled this out.
What if we had not the four-party talks, but included the Ukraine southeastern regions representation, would that be a step forward?
That was the position of Foreign Minister Lavrov the last time, that, yes, they should participate and attempt to negotiate some type of federal state arrangement there in Ukraine to satisfy their concerns.
I think this matter could be negotiated, but so far I’ve seen no evidence that this is what Kiev wants to do or the Obama administration is going to order them to do.
I think their attitude is – we stole Kiev fair and square, we plan to keep it and we are moving forward with these fake elections on May 25 to sort of give a fig leaf of legitimacy to these neo-Nazi thugs who are running Kiev.
