MOSCOW, October 12./TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the West to put pressure on the Kiev authorities so that they abide by the Minsk agreements.
"If somebody indeed wants to see Minsk agreements implemented, all parties to the conflict must be influenced, and first of all, in this case, the Kiev authorities. I don’t understand what prevents them from doing this," Putin told Russia Calling! forum on Wednesday.
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He said it was not Russia that had let the situation degenerate to a coup in Ukraine. "Our American partners don’t conceal that they were behind this to a great degree, that they financed the radical opposition, bringing the situation to an unconstitutional change of power, although this could have been done differently," the president said.
Ha also said it was not Moscow that "sabotaged the Minsk agreements". "We cannot on behalf of the Kiev authorities make amendments to the constitution, which is a key factor (in the settlement of the conflict in southeast Ukraine), implement the law on a special status of government in Donbass," he added. "I cannot sign for the Ukrainian president the law on amnesty passed by Rada," he said.
The president also said that no changes were seen either after the Donbass authorities decided unilaterally to stop shelling and not to retaliate to shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces in the conflict zone.
He said "nothing will advance without arriving at political agreements".