It is much too early to speak about a possible meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the new Ukrainian president, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
“The president spelled out his position before [the vote]. He
accentuated his respect for the will of the Ukrainian people. The
position of Vladimir Putin has not changed since then,” Peskov answered
Kommersant’s question as to whether Putin would react to the Ukrainian
election outcomes.
Kommersant also asked Peskov to comment on the wish of Petro
Poroshenko to meet with the Russian president in the first half of June.
“It is too much early to speak about that,” Peskov said.
The newspaper cited the opinion of the OSCE election observation
mission that the Ukrainian election was “largely in line with
international commitments”.
“Before Sunday, everyone agreed that this was going to be an
important, if difficult election, but few believed it would be
successful. Our assessment is clear: the Ukrainian authorities and the
Ukrainian people have made this election a success,” the newspaper
quoted a preliminary report of the OSCE monitors released on May 26.
“The voting and counting process were transparent and largely in line
with procedures, despite large queues of voters in some parts of the
country,” the report said.
The observers said the Ukrainian Central Elections Commission was
operating under complex conditions and indicated “the hostile security
environment in two eastern regions (Donetsk and Luhansk) and the
increasing attempts to derail the process by armed groups in these parts
of the country.”
The newspaper noted that a number of Western leaders and foreign
ministers hastily congratulated Poroshenko on the election victory
before the count of votes was over.
