Poetin wil pas weer gaan praten als Oekraine inbindt

De Russische president Vladimir Poetin wil pas weer gaan overleggen over een oplossing voor het gewapende conflict in de Donbas als Oekraïne de eerder in Minsk gemaakte afspraken nakomt. Dat heeft zijn woordvoerder Dmitri Peskov vanmiddag verklaard. Hij reageerde daarmee op berichten in de media dat de Duitse bondskanselier Angela Merkel en de Franse president Francois nog voor een NAVO-conferentie op 8 en 9 juli in Warschau met zowel Poetin als de Oekraïense president willen overleggen over het verminderen van de spanningen in Oost-Oekraïne.

Zo'n overleg van de 'Normandische Vier' ziet Poetin echter niet zitten. Hij wil eerst de toezegging dat er eindelijk lokale verkiezingen in de Donbas worden gehouden, zoals afgesproken in Minsk. Er is op dat vlak echter een patstelling ontstaan, omdat de Oekraïense regering dat alleen wil als het vechten is opgehouden, de Russische soldaten huiswaarts zijn gegaan en Oekraïne weer de controle heeft over de gehele grens.

Bovendien moet er volgens Oekraïne een gewapende politiemissie van de OVSE in de Donbas worden gestationeerd. Rusland ontkent dat er reguliere troepen in het buurland aanwezig zijn en ook over de politiemissie is nog geen overeenstemming, al toonde Poetin zich afgelopen week tijdens het Internationaal Economisch Forum in St. Petersburg wel inschikkelijk door akkoord te gaan met een licht bewapende missie.

Er is echter ook nog zoiets als een politieke hervorming nodig, in de vorm van aanpassing van de Oekraïense grondwet om verregaande autonomie van de door de separatisten beheerste gebieden mogelijk te maken. Poetin deed afgelopen week een beroep op de Oekraïense regering om daar eindelijk eens haast mee te maken. Dat ligt in Oekraïne echter niet zo gemakkelijk, aangezien ook amnestie voor de separatisten hoort bij de eindoplossing van het conflict in de Donbas.

Bron: Unian

Kremlin: Normandy Four talks possible after Kyiv implements Minsk accords – TASS Another summit of the Normandy Four (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine) leaders looks impossible until Kyiv demonstrates its readiness to implement the Minsk agreements, Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to Russian news agency TASS. Politics 17:08, 20 June 2016 45 READ LATER 0 0 0 0 0 Photo from UNIAN Photo from UNIAN "Conditions [for holding such summit] could emerge only in case the Ukrainian side demonstrates readiness to take the steps that are clearly outlined in the Minsk agreements," he said. "So far, regrettably, we see no such readiness, so, a summit meeting is hardly ever possible as long as there are now visible perspectives of reaching any result," TASS wrote. "Naturally, all the Normandy Four countries would like to hold such a fruitful meeting," he added. European mass media reported earlier that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande want to meet in Minsk with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, to give a fresh impetus to the implementation of the Minsk agreements. The Germany government, according to the mass media, wants such a meeting to be held before a NATO summit in Warsaw due on July 8-9 to ease tensions in the West's relations with Russia. Neither the German foreign ministry nor the press service of the German government has commented on these reports. The Kremlin spokesman stressed the provisions of the Minsk peace agreements on Ukraine must not be interpreted in a wrong way. Peskov rejected a suggestion that the statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin chief of staff Sergey Ivanov on fragile truce in Ukraine's southeast allegedly signal the possibility to recede from those provisions concerning ceasefire and weapons withdrawal. "No one said about that," the Russian presidential spokesman stressed. "The Minsk agreements are a platform for settlement that has no alternative and any misinterpretation can only lead to undermining them," he said. Read also Budget of OSCE police mission in Donbas may reach about $1 bln According to Peskov, the issue of the presence of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) electoral mission in Donbas cannot be considered separately from organizing elections. He said the monitoring mission on the separation line should be not confused with the electoral mission. "There is the electoral mission – it's another question," he said. "Certainly, it cannot be solved separately from the issue of elections in these territories, and you know, we so far have no progress on the election issue," Peskov added. "The deployment of the OSCE monitoring mission on the line of disengagement is a separate question that requires settling many aspects through the OSCE and so on," the Kremlin official said. Last Friday, at a plenary meeting of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he agreed with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that it was necessary to reinforce the OSCE mission, even allowing the OSCE mission observers to carry small arms. He noted, however, that some other things could be done for enhancing security. "But one cannot delay the solution of key political issues indefinitely saying that not everything has been settled in this area." He reiterated the call on the Ukrainian authorities to conduct as soon as possible the political reform that will form the basis of the final settlement in the sphere of security as well.

Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/politics/1380850-kremlin-normandy-four-talks-possible-after-kyiv-implements-minsk-accords-tass.html