Russia: Ukraine turmoil was created ‘artificially’

DPA/Moscow/ViennaThe crisis in Ukraine was created “artificially and for purely geopolitical motives”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday, but added that his government is nevertheless willing to hold talks with the new leadership in Kiev to overcome the turmoil.Russia’s top diplomat said that Moscow is ready for “equal dialogue” with its international partners and Ukraine’s “declared” new leaders – so long as the talks are “partner-like” and there are no “attempts to display Russia as a party to the conflict”.“The crisis was not created by us ... it was created despite our multiple warnings, artificially and for purely geopolitical motives,” said Lavrov, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.Moscow has repeatedly said it does not recognise the pro-European leadership in Kiev, which ousted the Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych last month after three months of violent protests.The US and European Union have threatened sanctions against Moscow over the ongoing military standoff in the Crimean peninsula, amid fears Russia could annex the territory.They are urging Russia to pull back its forces in the former Soviet state and allow in international observers and human rights monitors.Military observers of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were met with warning shots when they tried to enter the Crimean peninsula at a checkpoint yesterday, the OSCE said, without saying who was responsible for the gunfire (see accompanying report below).Moscow, which maintains a Black Sea naval base on the strategic warm water peninsula, argues it is acting to protect ethnic Russians, who make up some 60% of Crimea and mostly oppose the interim government in Kiev.Lavrov on Friday warned US Secretary of State John Kerry that any sanctions imposed by the US on Russia over their military moves in Ukraine could “boomerang” on Washington, the foreign ministry in Moscow said.Later Russian news agencies reported that the Kremlin is considering a halt to military inspections with the US in retaliation for Washington’s threat.The inspections of nuclear arsenals under the 2010 arms control and reduction treaty, known as START, require a level of trust that has been undermined by the “unfriendly gestures” and “unsubstantiated threats” coming from the US and Nato, an unnamed employee of the defence ministry told the agencies.Central to the political and military crisis is a planned referendum on March 16 in Crimea, in which citizens will decide on whether or not to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.Western leaders and the Ukrainian government have harshly condemned the upcoming vote, with US President Barack Obama saying it would violate international law.“The Crimea was, is, and will remain Ukrainian,” Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia said yesterday in Kiev.But the Moscow-backed prime minister of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, refused to compromise, telling Russian television that “no one can cancel” the referendum.In Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said yesterday that China’s ties with its neighbour were in their “best period in history” and reiterated that his government opposed sanctions against Moscow.Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has led China’s Communist Party since November 2012, have developed a “deep friendship”, Wang said.The crisis in Ukraine was “regrettable” but has a “complex” historical background, he told reporters.“It is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has come to what it is today, yet it is not by accident that the situation has reached this point,” Wang said, adding that all sides should work to resolve the crisis through dialogue.