Lavrov, nobody interferes with Ukraine’s domestic affairs

Moscow’s Foreign Minister: “it is in the government’s power to sign an agreement or not.”  According to him the questions regarding a Russian intervention are “misleading”

Nobody should “interfere” in Ukraine’s “domestic affairs.” Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, advises the international community – the European Union included – to cease all pressure on Moscow and Kiev and to avoid interference in issues on which sovereignty belongs only and exclusively to Viktor Yanukovych’s government. The story is well-known: signing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement didn’t happen and this is because of pressure from the Kremlin.

In the last few days Kiev has been the theater for anti-Yanukovych demonstrations, with protestors asking for more pro-European policies and less pro-Russian, being pushed out by force. Everyone took a position, even NATO. Precisely from the Headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance, the Head of Russian diplomacy sent a strong message to all those involved. “I don’t understand why NATO made a statement about Ukraine and why the Secretary General of NATO must respond to questions on a Russian situation” in Ukraine, Sergei Lavrov’s premise at the end of the NATO-Russia summit. “I don’t understand these questions that lead up to a distorted and mistaken understanding: of the situation at hand. So I will take a stab at it. What happens or doesn’t happen in Ukraine “are Ukraine’s domestic affairs.”

In a press conference he answers questions about NATO issues but the Russian Foreign Minister addresses the European Union. The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement isn’t there but “whether to sign an agreement or not is the power of the executive and the executive has made use of its legitimate powers.” So the Ukrainian opposition must accept the sovereign decisions of the government because “otherwise they would have to hold demonstrations in all the countries that don’t sign the same agreements” they didn’t sign in Kiev. Ukraine, concludes Lavrov, “I hope they resolve the issue peacefully and that no one interferes.”

Renato Giannetti