MOSCOW, March 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Federation Council upper house of parliament has urged regional authorities to provide financial aid to Crimea.
Destabilization of the public and political situation in Ukraine has plunged the country into an acute crisis, the Council's members said in a resolution approved by the house at the Wednesday session.
Ukraine’s budget is unable to meet its current obligations, Russian senators said warning about a real threat to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, loss of stability of the Ukrainian economy which would have "a negative impact on trade and economic, cooperation, cultural and other kinds of ties between Russia and Ukraine."
The resolution calls for considering financial and humanitarian aid to the Crimean Autonomy. Also, it suggests setting up a commission in Russian regions on the border with Ukraine for financial assistance to Ukrainian citizens. The Federation Council said it was ready to take on the task of coordinating regional assistance.
After an extraordinary session, the Federation Council received calls from many Russian regions, not only from those on the border with Ukraine, but also from central Russia, proposing financial and humanitarian aid to Ukrainian provinces, in the first place to Crimea, chairman of the house's committee Sergei Ryabukhin told Itar-Tass.
Senators will be directly involved in the process, Ryabukhin said. "We will offer our colleagues to transfer a day's worth of salary as financial aid to Crimea," he explained.
Consolidation of efforts to overcome the crisis
The Federation Council has also urged foreign and Ukrainian parliamentarians to consolidate efforts to overcome the crisis in Ukraine.
"I propose to address deputies of all levels of Ukraine and foreign parliamentarians with a call for consolidating efforts to overcome the crisis through constitutional legal decisions," Deputy Chairman of the upper house Ilyas Umakhanov said, addressing colleagues during the house meeting.
"The bitter experience of the recent past must not be forgotten, when during the aggression against South Ossetia, a distorted picture of what was happening was imposed on the world, and some politicians gave in to the factory of disinformation, losing their political faces," Umakhanov said.
All the sides must be urged to be responsible and self-restrained and not to force themselves into a deadlock by taking opportunistic and emotional decisions, he noted.
He said a draft statement was prepared and expected to be adopted later during the meeting.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko noted it was very important to lower the degree of emotions and tension and, with calm attitude, to continue the search for a lawful constitutional solution to the crisis. "It is very important, in my view, for politicians of all levels not to make emotional statements and speeches that may add fuel to the fire and create artificial tension. In this case, every word must be well-considered," she said.