You're reading: Federation Council denies accusations of Russia’s financing protests in south-eastern Ukraine

Moscow  - The statements of the U.S. Department of State that protest rallies in eastern Ukraine are prepared and paid for by Russia are absurd, Russian Federation Council international affairs committee deputy head, Andrei Klimov, said.

“Such statements are absolutely unsound and absurd. If Americans work with such methods somewhere in the world, this does not mean that other countries work with the same methods,” Klimov told Interfax on Tuesday.

Namely the U.S. spent $5 billion on Ukraine, some part of which were spent on non-governmental organizations operating in Ukraine, Klimov said. “EU countries spent around 200 million euro on these goals,” he said.

“Nothing close has ever occurred in the Russian budget and budgets of our organizations – either commercial and non-commercial,” Klimov said. “So the Department of State should not lay the blame on somebody else,” he said.

Representatives of the U.S. intelligence, who are most likely in eastern regions of Ukraine, work on the current Ukrainian authorities, Klimov said.

“Surely, representatives of the U.S. expert community and representatives of other NATO intelligences are there and I do not rule out forceful cover as various types of special purpose unit officers. It is not definite that these special purpose unit officers are on the state service in the U.S., quite possibly they could be sent from some private structures, what Americans have done repeatedly,” Klimov said.

The situation in Crimea, which accessed to Russia, can not be compared to the situation in eastern Ukraine, in particular in Donetsk, where a referendum regarding joining Russia has been declared, Klimov said.

“Under the Ukrainian constitution, Crimea was a republic and this republic had a parliament legitimately elected and no one doubted its legitimacy. Namely this legitimate parliament elected by the Crimean people has made a number of important decisions, including on independence and accession to Russia. And all this has been done in the framework of the authority of the legitimate parliament,” he said.

The forces in eastern Ukraine, which declare the referendum and take deputies’ posts, act “over impulse of the soul and emotion,” Klimov said.

“If the Ukrainian temporary rulers do not rock the boat themselves and do not lead things to slaying, Russia has no grounds to deal with issues of forceful influence and constraint to peace. But if people do not understand the obvious and, God forbid, start fighting people, who speak Russian and do not respect the authorities sitting in Kyiv, under the pretence of fighting terrorism, of course, in this case we have the opportunity to react not just politically and legally, moreover, the Federation Council gave all necessary decisions on this regard to commander-in-chief, having agreed to the use of armed forces in Ukraine until the situation in this country is stabilized,” Klimov said.

In this case this concerns hypothetical situation development, Klimov said. “We hope that this scenario will never be implemented. Today all the responsibility rests on the people in Kyiv, who appointed themselves to be responsible for the fate of Ukraine, having taken this disabling burden upon themselves,” he said.