YEREVAN, January 30. /TASS/. Arranging an international monitoring mission in the Kerch Strait is totally ruled out, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told TASS in the wake of a joint Franco-German initiative.
"Such a possibility is out of the question," he said. "In a goodwill move we proposed a single trip by experts, who would be able to report their findings to their superiors. Regrettably, it was interpreted as a chance to meddle on a far greater scale. Such an approach does not suit us."
Karasin said that Russia’s stance had been clear and logical from the outset.
"President Putin told Chancellor Merkel that if they wished to send a group on a single visit to see the state of affairs in the Kerch Strait for themselves, we would be prepared to arrange for it. But we are categorically against linking this with a multilateral monitoring format that would include Ukraine, let alone inflating the format to a large-scale long-term mission."
Earlier, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas put forward an idea of expanding the mandate of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to the Sea of Azov.
The idea emerged after three Ukrainian naval ships last November violated the rules of navigation in Russia’s territorial waters on the way from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Russian border guards had to use weapons to stop them in the Kerch Strait. The ships were detained and all crew members arrested on charges of illegally crossing Russia’s state border.
Ukraine used the incident as another pretext for charging Russia with a violation of international law and demanded an international monitoring mission should be dispatched to the area of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov.