HANOI, March 29. /TASS/. Developments in Ukraine can be seen as an example of how sovereign countries may suffer from foreign interference, Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the international committee of Russia’s federation Council upper parliament house, told TASS on Sunday.
Kosachev, who is taking part in the 132nd session of the Assembly of the Inter-parliamentary Union in Hanoi, said although the Ukrainian crisis was outside the official agenda of the meeting but it was very much likely to be discussed by the lawmakers. "The general topic for discussions under the programme is sustainable development. I will touch upon the Ukrainian crisis in my speech. I cannot ignore it in the current conditions. But I will speak about this crisis as an example of inadmissibility of foreign interference into domestic affairs of sovereign states," he said.
He said speaking about foreign interference he meant "the West’s position to drag Ukraine first into NATO, then into the European Union not guaranteeing it any hopes for full-fledged membership and sparing no effort to put artificial obstacles on the path of Ukraine’s cooperation with Russia."
"This interference eventually provoked Euromaidan /Maidan is Kiev’s central Independence Square, the symbol of protests - TASS/ in February last year and keeps on splitting the country up till now," the Russian lawmaker noted. "This is an example of how it must not be, of how sovereign countries may suffer from foreign interference. That is why they ought to be protected by all instruments of the existing institutions of international law."
He said that the Russian delegation had expressed readiness to meet with Ukrainian lawmakers on the sidelines on the Intern-Parliamentary Union’s session. "We haven’t asked the Ukrainian delegation for a meeting but expressed our readiness to speak in the bilateral format, if Ukrainian colleagues are interested in that. We referred a corresponding proposal to them but have received no answer as of yet," Kosachev noted.
He said he was in favour of ongoing parliamentary contacts in any state of interstate relations. Lawmakers, in his words, can have a broader view on certain issues, since they are not limited to competences of officially authorized delegations.
"Our bilateral relations with Ukraine require a search for further ways of development. Here in Hanoi, as well as at any other parliamentary format, we can discuss how we can live on not only close to each other but also together with each other in future, because all conflicts come to an end sooner or later," he noted.