Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

16:27:38
10/02/2017

nevnov.ru

The agreed framework between the US and Russia on the Ukrainian crisis will be achieved without the participation of a third party. Such an opinion was expressed to “Nevsky News” by the political scientist Vladimir Kornilov. He pointed out that thus far Kiev has been “under the total control of Washington,” but now the country is not included in the interests of the new President Donald Trump.

“In general, nobody ever doubted that the Kiev regime, to this day, has been under the total control of Washington. It is suffice to recall the audio recording in which the US Ambassador to Kiev discussed in the State Department who from the Ukrainian government has to be assigned to what position – what other proof is needed here?

Now, of course, Kiev feels abandoned. For a while, Washington has no time for Ukraine. Trump doesn’t hide that, for him, the Ukrainian crisis is just a bargaining chip in trading with Russia (he explicitly said this in a recent interview with the Times). And it means that the framework agreement between the US and Russia concerning this crisis will be achieved at the level of Trump and Putin, regardless of how much Ukraine wants the contrary.”

According to the expert, “this is not the first time that something like this has happened”. As an example, he cites a meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov one-to-one with US Secretary of State John Kerry. In the same format in October last year, talks on the situation in the South-East of Ukraine between the assistant to the Russian leader, Vladislav Surkov, with the then assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in the framework of her visit to Moscow took place also.

“And somehow, at that time, Ukraine wasn’t concerned about it, because everyone knew that Kiev lost its subjectivity and voluntarily passed it into the hands of the same Nuland and Kerry. Now it is concerned, because they suspect a change in position by Washington.

A couple of years ago, Henry Kissinger (former US Secretary of State), in an interview with Der Spiegel, directly stated that the United States and Russia could definitely discuss the fate of Ukraine without bringing the latter to the negotiating table. I want to note that Trump paid attention to Kissinger’s opinion, and judging by the rumors, even wanted to offer him the role of negotiator with Moscow. That’s saying a lot, isn’t it?”

On Thursday, the Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia will not conclude a deal with the US on Ukraine. Thus, the representative of the Kremlin commented on reports in some US media outlets that Moscow is preparing a corresponding agreement with the new White House administration.

For example, the Washington Post wrote that the White house could make concessions on the question of the Ukrainian conflict in exchange for Russia’s assistance in the fight against “Islamic State”.

“It is unlikely that the internal conflict may be the subject of some deal. This information does not correspond to reality in any way,” quotes TASS from the words of Peskov.

In addition, he stressed that “the fate of people who live in Donbass and who are now de facto rejected by their own state the can’t be the subject of a deal.”

Also Peskov expressed hope that the US “in one way or another uses its influence to persuade Kiev to fulfil its obligations in terms of implementing the Minsk agreements and also to refrain from aggressive tactics” in resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Fox News, Trump stated earlier that Washington does not have full information about what is happening in Ukraine, and the real situation is yet to be understood.

On February 7th, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the desire of the new American President to grasp the essence of the problem in Ukraine is a qualitative shift in comparison with the position of the Obama administration.

Earlier, in conversation with the correspondent of “Nevsky News”, the Director of expert-analytical center of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration Nikolai Kalmykov suggested that the United States will disengage with the conflict in the South-East of Ukraine.

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