NOVO-OGARYOVO, April 09. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes the Russian Foreign Ministry’s efforts to ease tensions around Ukraine will have a positive result.

“I hope the initiative of Russia’s Foreign Ministry to level off the situation, to change it for the better, will have consequences and the result will be positive. Anyway, I hope that the provisional leaders (of Ukraine) will not do there something that will be impossible to correct,” Putin said at a meeting with the Russian government.

A coup occurred in Ukraine in February after months of anti-government protests, often violent. The protests, dubbed “Euromaidan”, began when President Viktor Yanukovych decided in November 2013 to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.

New people were brought to power in Kiev amid deadly riots after Yanukovych had to leave Ukraine citing security concerns in February. Moscow does not recognize the new self-proclaimed Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine’s political crisis and Kiev’s ties with Moscow deteriorated further when the Republic of Crimea, where most residents are Russians, held a referendum March 16 in which an overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. The reunification deal with Moscow was signed March 18.