TASHKENT, October 3. /TASS/. The Kiev government’s signing of the Steinmeier’s formula will lay a good foundation for Normandy format meetings, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber said.
"I think this is a good basis to discuss possible Normandy format meetings. Prior to that, doing so made no sense, because numerous meetings failed to produce any practical results and consequences, but right now it is possible to discuss any terms and framework of actions," Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said after talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent.
She said that not only Russia, but other members of the Normandy Group (comprising Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) tried to persuade Kiev to sign the agreement.
During a meeting on Tuesday, all members of the Contact Group for settlement in eastern Ukraine signed the Steinmeier formula. Opponents of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in the Ukrainian parliament have demanded an explanation of the decision to approve the Steinmeier formula and its contents.
In late 2015, then-German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier put forward a plan that later became known as the "Steinmeier formula". The plan stipulates that a special status be granted to Donbass in accordance with the Minsk Agreements. In particular, the document envisages that Ukraine’s special law on local self-governance will take effect in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions on a temporary basis on the day of local elections, becoming permanent after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) issues a report on the vote’s results. The idea was endorsed at the Normandy Four meeting in Paris on October 2, 2015, and has been known as the Steinmeier formula since.