MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. So far, Russia is pinning no big hopes on Vladimir Zelensky who is winning a sweeping victory in Sunday’ runoff presidential election in Ukraine, a senior Russian lawmaker said.
"We pin no hopes on the winner so far, since under [incumbent President Pyotr] Poroshenko Ukraine has ceased to be a sovereign state. So, the situation has not changes, as a matter of fact, with the sanctions, demagogy about aggression and occupation and failed Minsk agreements still in place," Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international committee at Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house, said on Sunday.
"Only time will show whether Zelensky will be able to drop election rhetoric and become an independent president of sovereign and independent Ukraine," he said, commenting on the exit poll results indicating Zelensky victory with more than 70% of votes.
"And, naturally, I would like to wish him success in that," he added.
He noted that it doesn’t matter for the West who wins the elections. "Democracy for it is a choice between pro-Western candidates," he said. "And no one seems to care that elections are held in a country where the communist party is outlawed, where opposition and dissent are suppressed, where the church is persecuted, where million citizens living abroad are stripped of the possibility to vote."
"But the main thing is that visa-free travels (to the European Union - TASS) seem to be much less important for voters than tariffs," he said.