MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. Ukraine’s former Prime Minister, Nikolai Azarov, said on Friday he could not rule out immediate involvement of the West in the state coup in Ukraine.
He said it in an interview with the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche.
"On one occasion, the Americans asked us to let two of their airlifters into our territory without control," Azarov said. "The case in hand was the transportation diplomatic documents. Can you imagine two military transportation jets filled with correspondence or printouts of network messages? That’s ridiculous!"
"The data our intelligence services managed to obtain said the cargo most likely consisted of specialized equipment and cash money because every revolution needs financing," he said.
According to Azarov, the then President, Viktor Yanukovich hoped the Americans would meet him halfway. "He didn’t want to lose them but they cheated him."
"The Americans acted cunningly," he said. "They told Yanukovich he was legitimate (as President of Ukraine - TASS), that he was a guarantor of the Constitution and he should stay in office until the next election and the only thing they insisted on was the setting-up of a national unity government."
He believes however this was a trick for supplanting Yanukovich.
Azarov indicated nonetheless that Yanukovich hoped until the very last moment the conflict in Ukraine could be settled politically and diplomatically.