MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. The incident in the Kerch Strait is a provocation staged ahead of the presidential election in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told VTB Capital’s Russia Calling Investment Forum on Wednesday.
"As for the Black Sea incident, certainly, this is a provocation. The provocation carried out by the current authorities, and I think by the incumbent president ahead of the presidential election in Ukraine in March next year. The incumbent president’s rating is somewhere at the fifth place, and he is running the risk of not making in into the second round, that’s why something needs to be done to exacerbate this situation and create invincible obstacles for his rivals, namely from the opposition," Putin said.
Read also
- Press review: Global response to Kerch standoff and EU joins Russia for SWIFT alternative
- Poroshenko’s crackdown on the public: Martial law across Ukraine’s 10 regions takes effect
- Poroshenko’s chances to retain power slim, says Russian security chief
- Medvedev sees Poroshenko’s chances of winning presidential election as zero