Foreign Minister of
Russia, Sergey Lavrov answers the question about the situation in Ukraine, during the joint
press conference summarizing the results of the third session of the
Russia-CCASG strategic dialogue at ministerial level, Kuwait City on February
19, 2012.
Question: In connection with the
latest events in Ukraine, several western officials are openly appealing to
introduce sanctions against Ukrainian leaders, accusing them of these events
and affirming that they are losing legitimacy. The Polish Foreign Minister,
Radoslaw Sikorski, is going to visit Ukraine on an EU mission. How would you
comment on such a reaction by the West? Are there any prospects for this issue
to come before the UNSC?
Lavrov Answer: We are deeply concerned about the events in Ukraine. We have
cautioned about such a development of eventsmany times. The Kremlin and the
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have provided their principled assessments
of the situation in the country today. Unfortunately, all the agreements
reached when Ukraine showed good will, readiness to search for compromises and
to implement part of their obligations have been disrupted by radical
oppositionists, who organised a campaign against the Verkhovna Rada. When they
were not allowed in for known reasons (this action was not sanctioned) they
started to throw Molotov cocktails at policemen and use firearms. As you know,
there are significant numbers of killed and wounded. Thefacts show that these
radicals not only have light weapons, but also grenade launchers. This is very
serious. Attempts to occupy administrative buildings, the prosecutor’s office
building, police and military units, are continuing.
We cannot describe
this otherwise than as an attempt at a coup d’état and to seize power by force.
Certainly, the extremists are guilty, they have been attempting to bring the
situation to a force scenario for weeks and months. The opposition,by refusing
compromises and setting requirements for powers outside the legal framework,
are also seriously responsible for not being able to fulfil their agreements,
including in the Rada.
I cannot leave aside
the responsibility of the West (at least many Western countries), who attempted
to interfere with these events in all possible ways, supported actions of the
opposition outside the legal framework, and sometimes even made passes at
militants, set ultimatums, threatened to enforce sanctions and still continue
to do so, and generally, supported provocative actions. At the same time, they
insistently and consistently shied away from any principled assessments of the
extremists’ actions, including Neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic manifestations – we
have drawn their attention to this many times and warned about the dangers of
such a position, “of burying their heads like an ostrich”.
Now they are
attempting to unfairly shift the blame on us. We hear accusations from some
western political actors that Russia is attempting to “re-Sovietize”, the
post-Soviet space is guilty of everything. These are attempts using improper
means. Any observer who has at least a bit of common sense and is
unprejudiced,can easily understand this.
We confirm that the
situation must be settled within the framework of constitutional prerogatives
by the acting powers of Ukraine and we caution against any attempts at
insistent mediation. We have observed such attempts many times – it seems to me
that our European partners have already had enough of mediation. In this
situation, we appeal to everybody to place the interests of Ukraine and its
people above personal geopolitical plans.
--John
Tocchio
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