Putin: Russia ready to support Ukraine, regardless of govt ― RT News
"Regarding you question whether we will review our agreements on loans and the energy sector if the opposition will take power ... No, we will not," Putin told a news conference after talks with European Union leaders in Brussels.
The loan and the gradual reduction of gas price were to “support the people of Ukraine, not the government”.
“It’s the ordinary people who always suffer,” he added.
The Russian president reiterated Moscow’s position on the situation in Ukraine, saying that the political crisis in the country should be solved without foreign interference.
Putin said that Moscow believes that meddling in Ukraine’s domestic affairs is unacceptable.
The international community, which has been calling on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to act in a civilized way amid the crisis, should urge the opposition to do the same, Putin added.
“[Western] media did not show it, but we did see that a priest in western Ukraine called on the crowd to go to Kiev and storm the government. And then he explains: ‘That’s in order not to allow niggers, moskals (an insulting word used by Ukrainians to describe Russians), and Jews to rule,’” Putin told the news conference.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the sides discussed how the Eastern Partnership and the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan “could relate to each other,” Van Rompuy said. The Partnership program could be beneficial and open new business opportunities for all EU’s eastern neighbors “including Russia,” he said at the joint news conference.
“The Eastern Partnership doesn’t affect Russia’s economic, trade, social-human and cultural links to many of our common neighbors,” he said.
But since there can be “different interpretations and misunderstandings on the [Eastern Partnership] association agreements,” Brussels and Moscow agreed to continue bilateral consultations on the issue and talk about possible economic consequences of such agreements for both sides, Van Rompuy said.
Barroso said that the most important strategic and joint objective is to create a common economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East. The EU’s Eastern Partnership program is one of the steps to achieve that goal.
“The partnership is not against someone, it is for something,” Van Rompuy said.
Putin said that Russia had some questions about the consequences of Ukraine’s signing of the association agreement and whether it would be allowed to remain within the free trade zone. Moscow “got an impression that Ukraine was being taken out” of the zone that unites several former Soviet republics, he said. If that was the case, Russia would not be able to preserve the preferential regime for Ukraine since otherwise “such a backdoor entry into our market” would affect the Russian economy.
“There’s no politicking here, there’s pragmatic interest,” Putin said.
