Lack of broad amnesty to cast doubt on Ukrainian election results - Medvedev
MUNICH. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that the legitimacy of the Ukrainian elections will be in question unless they are preceded by a broad amnesty.
"Ukraine has not honored its obligations to offer broad amnesty to those who took part in the events in Ukraine in 2014-2015. Without amnesty, these people will not be able to take part in the elections, which will make their results dubious," the prime minister told the International Security Conference in Munich.
"The OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] will hardly like it," he said.
The Minsk agreements must be implemented in full, he said. "We are open to a compromise: we accepted Mr Steinmeier's proposal to begin, once the elections are held, temporary application of the Law on the special status (on local self-administration in the separate areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions)," Medvedev said.
After the OSCE ODIHR recognizes the election results, the law will apply permanently, he said.
"And there is no movement here," he said.
