KIEV, December 22, (ITAR-TASS). An indefinite rally in support of the Ukrainian president in Kiev has ended following Ukrainian-Russian agreements reached in Moscow on December 17.
The rally was organized after pro-EU rallies gripped Kiev in protest against president’s U-turn on the association agreement with the EU.
These agreements “will become a powerful motivation for an efficient development of the national economy,” said a resolution passed by the meeting in support of the president, organized by the ruling Party of Regions in Kiev’s Mariinsky Park.
“We are confident that a successful settlement of all disputes in trade-economic cooperation with the Russian Federation will let Ukraine sizably strengthen its positions in the negotiating process with the European community, launch a full-fledged mutually advantageous dialogue,” the resolution said.
Its authors draw attention to the fact that having achieved a sizable reduction of the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas and ensuring capacity operations of its gas transmission system, Ukraine stops being a “rightless petitioner timidly awaiting decision on its fate on the doorstep of the European home, becoming a guarantor of energy security of the European Union, and can now more actively and insistently defend its interests”.
The resolution also expressed “categorical protest against outrageous actions of opposition politicians who cynically speculate on foreign policy sympathies of the Ukrainian people, manipulate the public opinion, and are ready to spit the Ukrainian society for the sake of their unhealthy carrier ambitions, draw Ukraine into a chaos of acute civil confrontation”.
“We urge opposition politicians to make a step towards mutual understanding” on domestic political problems, and we urge all Ukrainian people to seek national unity and mutual understanding,” the document said.
“Most participants in rallies in the capital are normal, adequate common people from all regions of the country, who don’t seek quarrels and splits,” first deputy chairman of the Party of Regions’ faction Mikhail Chechetov said in a statement on Sunday. “We urge them to get back to their families, spend the New Year holidays among their next-of-kin,” he added. “Politics is the business of politicians,” he said.
According to Oleg Kalashnikov, one of the organizers of the meeting, it will be suspended starting from Monday. “We believe our task is accomplished,” he said. “Our meeting in support of the policy of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has yielded result. The agreements signed by the Ukrainian president during his visit to Moscow ensure the development of the Ukrainian economy and preserves jobs,” he added.