Early elections Ukraine's internal affair - Lukin
MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - The agreement reached in Kyiv to hold an early presidential election is Ukraine's internal affair, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin said.
"This is not our problem. This is a Ukrainian problem. It is their problem with one another (between the authorities and the opposition)," Lukin told Interfax on Friday night after returning to Moscow from Kyiv.
"The fact is, we are not quite clear what role we have in this affair. The problem of a dialogue between the two Ukrainian sides is their business, we are not meddling. In this case we are witnesses," said Lukin, who was sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kyiv yesterday with a mediating mission.
"We must clarify our position and our role. We want to be useful, but without interfering in this country's internal affairs, by helping but without assuming obligations that are not entirely clear," he said.
"There is a chance of peace. But now everything depends on Ukraine, what they want for themselves. Do they want a standoff and clashes? Or do they want to talk to each other? We have always been willing to help to the extent Ukraine considers our help necessary. You can't force everyone to like you," he said.
Calls for early elections to be held are aimed at forcing on Kyiv a choice in favor of the European Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a press conference in Baghdad a day earlier.
"The aim to impose, effectively, this choice on the Ukrainian leadership is also noticeable in the initiatives now being put forward: the demands to hold the parliamentary and early presidential elections as soon as possible, to form a coalition government. Already attempts are being made to predetermine everything for them," Lavrov said.