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Russian lawmaker takes news on creation of Ukraine salvation committee with restraint

Leonid Slutsky, a chairman of one of Russian State Duma committees, says he's "dubious about possibilities for it [the commitee] to do anything real now"

Leonid Slutsky Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

Leonid Slutsky

© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the committee for the affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS), Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, said on Monday we was restrained about the establishment of Ukraine national salvation committee.

"I would like to wish success to the Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine, although I am rather dubious about possibilities for it to do anything real now," he told TASS. In his words, he was "extremely positive" about the committee’s chairman and former prime minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov personally and "his efforts towards settling the crisis in Ukraine, although he was born in Kaluga [in Russia], he considers Ukraine to be his homeland."

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"As far as I understand, they will bring together many of those who are not indifferent to the fate of the present-day Ukraine and, probably, they will outline some first steps," Slutsky said. However, he noted, before arriving at a final opinion about the committee he wanted to speak with Azarov personally to get to know about his committee’s plans.

Another Russian lawmaker, Frants Klintsevich, the first deputy leader of the United Russia faction in the Russian State Duma lower parliament house and member of the Duma defense committee, told TASS on Monday he was confident that something live the committee for the salvation of Ukraine was bound to come to existence sooner or later. "[Ukrainian former prime minister] Mykola Azarov’s statement about the establishment of the Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine was no surprise for me. Sooner or later, such a committee was bound to emerge," he said, adding that it mattered little how such structure could be named, a "government in exile" or anything else. "Another thing is more important: whether any real forces are behind it," he said, adding that so far there was no definite answer to this question. "Although a base for protests really exists there - at least half of the country, not taking into account Donbas, does not accept the current regime," he noted.

"In other words, we should get a better look at the Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine. And only then, it will be possible to speak about cooperation with that committee at a public organization level, for instance with Russia’s Union of Afghan Veterans," Klintsevich said.

Earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told a news conference in Moscow the Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine was being set up to promote the idea of early presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine. The committee has nominated Vladimir Oleinik, a former member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament), as possible candidate for Ukrainian president.

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