MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. The chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, believes that the outcome of the Dutch referendum on the issue if the EU-Ukraine agreement of association is worth ratifying has confirmed Kiev’s worst fears.
The Netherlands held the plebiscite on whether it should give the green light to the EU’s association agreement with Ukraine on Wednesday, April 6. As follows from the early returns, 61.1% opposed the agreement, and 38.1% said they were for it. The 32.2% turnout exceeded the required minimum of 30%, needed for declaring the procedure valid. The Netherlands’ Election Council will declare the official results on April 12.
"The Dutch failed to rise to Kiev’s best expectations, but confirmed the worst ones. Although the final results will be declared on April 12, the verdict is beyond doubt. Ukraine has heard a firm NO," Kosachyov said on his Facebook page.
At the same time he is not certain whether the outcome of the voting is a bad signal to Ukraine and not to Kiev’s politicians who have put everything at stake."
"Possibly, the suspension of the agreement of association will prove a salvation for Ukraine but a failure for the Ukrainian authorities," Kosachyov speculated.
In response to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s claims the referendum was an attack against the unity of Europe and European values Kosachyov quoted the deputy chairman of the international affairs committee of the Dutch Senate, Tiny Kox, who described Ukraine as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe and voiced strong doubts it deserved the association agreement with the EU.
"It looks like the Netherlands respects the European values. That’s the reason they voted against," Kosachyov said.
He believes that the ball now is the Dutch government’s court. It remains to be seen whether it will send back to parliament for reconsideration the previously ratified agreement of association between the EU and Ukraine.
"This will put to test Dutch political culture and commitment to European values or, on the contrary to EU directives," Kosachyov said.
Europeans have become fearful of Ukraine
According to Chairman of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs Alexey Pushkov, the referendum results show that Europeans have become fearful of Ukraine.
"The referendum results were predictable and the fear of present-day Ukraine experienced in Europe has now manifested itself in the Netherlands," Pushkov told TASS.
Ukraine has failed to create the image of a developing democratic country and, on the contrary, its image is extremely negative, the lawmaker said.
"This is the country, which is embroiled in an acute civil conflict where peaceful cities are shelled, civilians die and the cases of mass massacre like in Odessa are not investigated, where journalists, such as Oles Buzina, are killed and Russian journalists are killed," the legislator said.
"No matter how the Ukrainian propaganda may try, all these facts reach Europeans, Western consumers of information. And such Ukraine causes the alarm and fear of a very large part of Europe," Pushkov said.
Dutch people fear for their security
First deputy chairman of Russian Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee Frants Klintsevich told reporters on Thursday that citizens of the Netherlands have voted against EU’s association with Ukraine because they are concerned about their security in case a country with high levels of corruption and crime joins the European Union.
Klintsevich said that "people that voted against it were not thinking about European values." "They were concerned about a more mundane thing - their own security. Ukraine in EU means new sources of uncontrolled migration, corruption, crime and many other problems which the current authorities in Ukraine will not be able to overcome even in 20 years," the lawmaker noted adding that "ordinary Europeans who are far from politics, do not need this for sure."
‘No vote’ on EU-Ukraine deal is result of Kiev’s failed policy
The deputy speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Alexander Romanovich, told TASS that he considers the result of the vote to be the outcome of the failed policy of Kiev’s current authorities.
"The results of the referendum in the Netherlands are rather indicative. Despite all efforts of the Ukrainian leadership and its overseas mentors, the citizens of old Europe are well aware that Ukraine is not ready for the association with the European Union," the lawmaker said.
Romanovich noted that the institutions of state power in Ukraine are being gradually ruined and corruption has gripped the country where the level of life has dropped to the one of the poorest African states.
"All these processes come amid the uncontrolled spread of weapons and the growth of various nationalist movements that stage torchlight processions in the "best" traditions of fascists and attack the embassies of other countries," he said, adding that the EU association deal "was and remains the only fig leaf for the current Ukrainian authorities with which they tried to cover all their failures."
However, if in Ukraine all the major mass media outlets are controlled by oligarchs and people can be deceived, the referendum outcome shows that such tricks of Ukraine’s authorities do not work in Europe, he added.