MOSCOW, July 09./ITAR-TASS/. Russia wants to resolve the Ukrainian crisis by peaceful means, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told the upper house of parliament on Wednesday.

“From the very beginning, the Federation Council has paid special attention to this issue,” she said. “Unfortunately, the situation in Ukraine is not improving. Unlawful acts are being committed, civilians are dying, and thousands of refugees are seeking salvation in Russia’s border regions.”

“The most important thing today is to end the bloodshed,” she said. “All possible steps are being taken by the president and the Foreign Ministry. The Federation Council has always called for peaceful settlement, considering that there is just no other way out of the most severe political crisis in Ukraine.

 

Putin asks Federation Council to cancel resolution

President Vladimir Putin proposed to the Federation Council to cancel the March 1 resolution over possible use of Russian military forces in Ukraine. This decision was taken over the start of trhree-party talks on settlement of the situation in east Ukraine. The presidential letter was sent to the Federation Council.

“The Constitution does not envisage an especially fixed and standard procedure (for this cancellation), but elimination of conditions that caused the presidential address to the Federation Council is the main sense of possible cancellation of the decision,” deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee for Constitutional Legislation Konstantin Dobrynin said earlier.

The Federation Council resolution of March 1, 2014 granted a right to the president “to use Russian military forces in Ukraine to improve public and political situation in that country."

 

Putin asks for use of Armed Forces in Ukraine

On March 1, President Putin sent to the Federation Council a letter on the use of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine pending the resolution of the political crisis in the country. The appeal was made due to the deteriorating situation on the Crimean peninsula, that was part of Ukraine at that time.

In connection with the extraordinary situation in Ukraine, the threat to the lives of citizens of the Russian Federation, our compatriots, the personnel of the military contingent of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation deployed on the territory of Ukraine (Autonomous Republic of Crimea) in accordance with an international treaty, and pursuant to Article 102-1(d) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, I hereby submit to the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation a letter on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending normalization of the public and political situation in that country,” the presidential press service said.

The Federation Council supported Putin’s appeal regarding the use of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine pending normalization of the situation in the neighboring country.

Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said the upper house of parliament “asked the president to take exhaustive measures to prevent further escalation and put the resolution of the political crisis onto a legal track so that those who have grabbed power did not hurry so much and did not trample upon the rights of people and different regions of Ukraine.”