Moscow doubts Kyiv's conduct can change for better
MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax) - Moscow does not see any prospect that Kyiv's conduct will improve, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"We understand that the Western sponsors of the Kyiv regime are obsessed with retaining everything that they have control over, that allows them, they believe, to pressure Russia, which means the behavior of the Kyiv authorities will not change for the better in the foreseeable future," Ryabkov told the journal International Affairs.
"It's a sad thing to affirm, but we're moving on and continuing to work in various formats. Summit meetings of the Normandy Four will make sense when we realize they can bring results," Ryabkov said.
"Russia is for the strict and full implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures. This involves certain steps, which Kyiv has yet to take. The Americans can say that black is white and vice versa as much as they want, but facts are facts," he said.
"The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has been recording the actual state of affairs and the scope of Kyiv's failure to fulfill the Minsk Agreements and other deals, among them the agreement on the disengagement of forces and the withdrawal of heavy weapons. There are no laws on amnesty or the special status of the region, either," Ryabkov said.
"Instead, they are adopting the opposite legislation, especially now, as the elections in Ukraine are approaching," he said.