Ukraine's recruiting foreigners to restore order may be attempt to suppress civil protest - Moscow
31 March 2014, 21:00 -- Media reports claiming that the Ukrainian leadership wants to recruit personnel from private foreign military companies 'in order to maintain law and order' may suggest that the Kiev regime wants to suppress civil protest and discontent, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. 'Anyway, one can state that in the absence of support from the Ukrainian population, the Maidan government has only one option if it wants to remain in power - to mobilize any support possible from foreign sponsors, including foreign mercenaries,' the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary.
'Among the candidates for the role of gendarme is the company Greystone Limited, registered in Barbados, which is integrated with the Academi corporation,' it said.
'It is an analogue, or, probably, an affiliate body of the Blackwater private army, whose soldiers have been accused of committing rigorous and regular human rights abuses in troubled regions,' the ministry said.
'It looks as though this practice, if it really is implemented, goes against the Ukrainian laws that ban foreign citizens from working with private security companies,' it said.
'Such initiatives demonstrate that those who have conquered their place in power in Kiev cannot guarantee minimal order or even their own security,' the Foreign Ministry said.
'The question arises, what the price of this plan is and where the money will come from. To what extent will the burden of spending on highly-paid foreign specialists be shifted to ordinary Ukrainians who, in connection with the painful tax increase, including taxes on gas as the precondition for securing loans from the International Monetary Fund, will have to tighten their belts even stronger?' it said.
Putin talks with Angela Merkel, calls for constitutional reform in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for constitutional reform in Ukraine in order to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of its people. Putin was holding a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, March 31. He called the chancellor to discuss 'various aspects of the situation in Ukraine, including possible international assistance for the restoration of stability in the country', the presidential press service said.
'Discussing various aspects of the situation in Ukraine... Putin stressed the importance of holding constitutional reforms' in Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement.It added they also discussed Moldova's largely Russian-speaking breakaway region of Transdniestr bordering Ukraine and Putin raised 'the need to take effective measures aimed at lifting an effective blockade from the outside of this region.'
Russian President Vladimir Putin also said a series of effective measures must be taken to lift a de-facto blockade of Transdnestria by Moldova and Ukraine. Putin pointed out at the situation around Transdnestria.
Russia and US to work together with Ukraine's gov't and people to overcome crisis - Lavrov
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Russia and the US have agreed to work together with Ukraine's government and people to overcome the Ukrainian political crisis, after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry.
'We agreed to start broad cooperation with Ukraine's government and people to solve such top-priority tasks as supporting the rights of national minorities, including the right to use national minorities' languages in official documents. Besides, we will also try to disarm informal armed groups in Ukraine in order to bring peace to the country. We will help Ukrainians to adopt a new, more democratic constitution and to hold free and honest elections according to internationally adopted norms,' Mr. Lavrov said in Paris in the early hours of Monday, after four hours of talks with the US State Secretary John Kerry.
Federalization of Ukraine is the only way from crisis - Lavrov
Russia believes that there is no other way to settle down the political crisis in Ukraine than federalization of the country. 'We are convinced that the constitutional reform in Ukraine should include federalization as one of its main topics,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in the early hours of Monday, after four hours of talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
'Ukraine's unity should be realized with taking the interests of all the country's regions into account, without any exceptions,' Sergey Lavrov continued. 'Ukraine's western, eastern and southern regions have different political traditions and different interests, and to make Ukraine function as one state, a compromise between all these interests should be found.'
'However, it is up to Ukrainians themselves to solve their problems,' the Russian Foreign Minister added. 'Nobody has the right to impose any schemes on them. The scenario of solving the crisis should take the interests of all Ukraine's regions and all the disputable questions into account. This should be done with respect to traditions – political, economic, religious and language – of all the regions of Ukraine.'
Lavrov and Kerry agree to meet oftener to try to solve Ukrainian crisis
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry have agreed to hold frequent meetings to discuss the ways to solve the political crisis in Ukraine.
'We have agreed to continue our dialogue and to meet oftener for more attempts to stop the Ukrainian crisis,' Mr. Lavrov told journalists in the early hours of Monday, after four hours of talks with Mr. Kerry. 'In my opinion, our meeting was very fruitful. Mr. Kerry and I hope that our next such meeting will take place in the nearest future.'
US, Russia meeting on Ukraine ends after four hours of talks
Talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, ended late on Sunday after four hours of negotiations to defuse tensions over Ukraine.
The goal of the meeting was to develop a proposal conceived by Kerry and Lavrov during earlier meetings to de-escalate the crisis over Ukraine's Crimea region.
Voice of Russia, Interfax, Reuters, TASS
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