MOSCOW, June 15, /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow thinks that a third power might be behind Kiev’s uncompromising position at gas talks with Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday.
The Ukrainian authorities are going off scot-free “due to the fact that our Western partners, at least some of them, are seeing to shield the.”
“This scot-free attitude is manifested in the arrogance the Ukrainian authorities are demonstrating at the gas talks turning down the reasonable compromises offered by the Russian side and supported by the European Union,” he said. “We would not like this arrogant and uncompromising position to be backed by a third power, although we have good reasons to think it is.”
“I cannot escape the feeling that the Ukrainian are either given consultancy to make their position that uncompromising on all these issues or they are simply heady with success,” Lavrov noted.
“We are worried over the fact that such scot-free attitudes are demonstrated more and more,” he said, citing the facts of arrests of Russian journalists and the recent attack on the Russian embassy in Kiev. “Similar approaches are demonstrated in their categorical statements about their commitment to sign a free trade and association agreement with the European Union exactly on June 27, despite their promises to hold three-party consultations, involving Russia and the European Union, on how to avoid collision of interests of Ukraine’s closer relations with the European Union and its rights and obligations as a member of the free trade zone of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),” Lavrov said.