MOSCOW, April 17./ITAR-TASS/. After Viktor Yanukovych suspended agreement with EU, anti-constitutional coup, armed seizure of power occurred in Ukraine, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said during Q&A live session.
Yanukovych performed his presidential duties the way he deemed possible. He said he had not dared sign a decree to use force against civilians, Vladimir Putin noted.
“I’ve talked to him many times, during the crisis and also after he came to Russia, we also talked about the possible use of force.”
“No matter how you regard this, but the essence of his answer was in the words he told me: ‘I’ve repeatedly thought about the need of the use of force. I had not dared to sign a decree on the use of force against my citizens’,” Putin said.
Classical anti-constitutional coup
A classical anti-constitutional coup occurred in Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
“As soon as (President Viktor Yanukovych) left Kiev and withdrew Interior Ministry units from the capital, the building of the presidential administration and government buildings were seized, and a coup d’etat was committed in the full, classical sense of this word,” Putin said.
“I don’t understand why it was done, why (those who did so) acted so unprofessionally, so stupidly and put the country in a state it is now in. And no one has the answer,” the Russian president emphasized.
Putin recalled that when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed an agreement with the opposition on February 21, the Polish, French and German foreign ministers posed as guarantors of the deal.
“He (Yanukovych) proceeded from the fact that the agreement has been reached and will be implemented,” the Russian leader said.
Putin recalled that the agreement stipulated that Yanukovych would not use force or the army, would withdraw Interior Ministry units, including Berkut, from the capital, whereas the opposition would release the seized administrative buildings, dismantle the barricades and disarm its armed units.
“Yanukovych agreed to early parliamentary elections, agreed to the reinstatement of the 2004 Constitution, agreed to early presidential elections in December this year,” the Russian president said.
“And if they had demanded, I think he would have eventually agreed to early presidential elections in a month or a month and a half. In principle, he already agreed to everything,” he said.
At the same time, Putin did not agree with the claim that Yanukovich fled his country.
“I would not agree that he fled,” Putin said. “He was forced to leave. He went from Kiev to the regions, and the buildings of the presidential administration and the government were seized immediately.”
Dialogue between Russia and Ukraine
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says it is most important to have an immediate dialogue between Ukraine’s current authorities and the regions.
“There should be not a showing-off dialogue among themselves, but a true search for compromises,” Putin said during a Q&A session adding Kiev’s authorities had been visiting the country’s regions, where, however, they had meetings not with the people, but with their own allies.
“Beginning of the negotiations in Geneva (on Ukraine) is most important,” Putin said. “It is very important to discuss jointly how to overcome the situation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Russia has always been with Ukraine, always will be, and that Russian assistance to Ukraine already runs into hundreds of billions of dollars.
Putin reminded of the assistance Russia had been providing to Ukraine for years. "It converted into money, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars," he underlined, adding that the two countries were linked by a tremendous amount of common interests.
"If we wish to be successful, we should certainly cooperate and be together. We'll certainly come to the understanding of it, despite all the difficulties of emotional nature of the present day," the Russian president said.
East of Ukraine
All allegations concerning Russia’s military involvement in the recent developments in the east of Ukraine are “rubbish,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
“It is all rubbish. There are no Russian military detachments in the east of Ukraine,” Putin said. “There are only local people and the best proof (that the Russian military is not involved) is that people are taking off their masks.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is sure in the framework of inter-state relations it would be possible to reach mutual understanding with Ukraine.
“We shall not separate from each other,” he said during a Q&A session.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes that he will not have to use the right to send troops to Ukraine he had been granted by the Federation Council.
“The Federation Council has empowered the president to use armed forces in Ukraine. I do hope that I will not have to use this right and that political and diplomatic means would resolve all acute problems of today in Ukraine,” Putin said in a live call-in question and answer session on Thursday.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hopes Ukrainians reach a consensus, and would not even speak about a possible use of Russian armed forces.
“I hope the efforts the diplomats are undertaking in Geneva today will bring results and will let our Ukrainian counterparts, our Ukrainian friends in Ukraine’s all territory, no matter where they live, reach a consensus to satisfy interests of Ukraine’s all citizens, including the Russian-speaking and Russian people living in southern regions,” Putin told reporters after a Q&A session on Thursday.
South-eastern crisis in Ukraine may be settled only through compromise
Settlement of the situation in Ukraine’s south-east may be possible by a compromise only, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday during a Q&A session.
“The issue should be settled by means of a compromise and of guarantees of legal interests of those people,” he said. “Agreements should be reached with those who claim to be the power in Kiev, and negotiations should be based on current situations.”
“Now, we can hear calls on people in south-east to lay down arms. This is a correct, good call. But then pull the armed forces from the civilians. Are they crazy? Tanks, armoured vehicles, cannons are being pulled to there, the war planes are in the air. Against who? Are they out of their senses at all?”
Besides, armed groups of nationalists are approaching the south-eastern regions.
“Well, look, the arms will be laid in the east; then the armed forces will retreat, and at the same time the nationalists are not disarmed. Later on, they will say - we can do nothing about it,” the president said.