MOSCOW, April 03, /ITAR-TASS/. The U.S. decision to end contacts within the framework of the Russia-U.S. Presidential Commission lack elementary logic, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday, April 3.
“The American decision to curtail contacts within the framework of the Presidential Commission as ‘punishment’ for Russia’s support for the free expression of the will of people in Crimea executed in full compliance with international law is not so much regrettable as surprising due to the lack of elementary logic,” he said.
“The Commission was created taking into account the Russian and American interests as a mechanism for direct dialogue between agencies, business communities and civil societies in Russia and the United States. In their emotional reaction to the fact that the situation in Crimea and Ukraine is not evolving they way they want, the Americans are acting by ‘the worse, the better’ principle, apparently not thinking about the consequences,” Lukashevich said.
“If Washington has decided to ‘frighten’ us by transferring to Ukraine the small amounts that were disbursed under the Presidential Commission, we know about the five billion U.S. dollars used to prepare the Maidan [protest actions in Kiev] as well. However the trust and the many positive things created within the Commission with so much difficulty will be destroyed, and it will be hard to rebuild them,” the spokesperson said.
“Our American colleagues may after all be able to look at the situation in Crimea and Ukraine impartially and open-mindedly and will not ruin everything in relations with Russia. Or so we hope ,” Lukashevich concluded.