OSCE should not send peacekeepers, parliamentarians to Donbas - Naryshkin
VIENNA. Feb 25 (Interfax) - Russian Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin sees no need for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to send a delegation of its members' parliamentarians, including from Russia and Ukraine, to the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, as has been proposed by the head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Ilkka Kanerva.
"Apparently, this is Mr. Kanerva's new proposal," he told reporters in Vienna when asked to comment on the proposal put forward by Kanerva from the tribune of the OSCE PA winter session on Thursday.
Only a year and a half ago, Russia proposed the setting up of a contact group on Ukraine in the framework of the OSCE PA, but the group was only formed on paper and has not started working yet, Naryshkin said. "Primarily, because its work is being blocked by Ukraine," the speaker said.
"I must admit I find it difficult to believe in the possibility of constructive work in this direction with the current Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, and I am saying this based on what I hear is being said, what is being done on that side, which laws and decisions get approved," he said.
He was equally skeptical about Kanerva's other proposal - to discuss the possibility of sending a peacekeeping mission to eastern Ukraine under the United Nations or OSCE aegis.
"I am deeply confident that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements [...] and in my view, any other constructs could simply ruin the construct that is the Minsk accords," Naryshkin said.
In European public conscience, there is lack of understanding of, and speculations about the Minsk agreements, and many commentators, including politicians and journalists, often simply have not read "these very simple and very clear three pages of text," he said.
Furthermore, Naryshkin once again described as "absurd" the formula whereby the prospect of lifting the anti-Russian sanctions is put in direct correlation with the implementation of the Minsk agreements. He said he often discussed this topic with European politicians who "understand the absurdity of this construct." "They smile and make a helpless gesture. It is good that they don't point their finger upward, meaning those sitting on the other side of the ocean," the Duma speaker said.
Kanerva said earlier on Thursday that the OSCE should send a delegation of its members' national parliament representatives, including from Russia, to eastern Ukraine.
He also spoke of the need to consider sending an international peacekeeping mission to eastern Ukraine. This would give the necessary boost to the implementation of the Minsk agreements, he said, adding that he could not see why either side sincerely aspiring to peace in Ukraine would object to such a decision.
