Sochi, Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has complained that the Ukrainian government has not consulted the population of militia-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine before setting the date for elections there.
“The Minsk agreements say that elections in southeastern Ukraine must be organized in coordination with Ukrainian legislation – not under Ukrainian law but in coordination. This was chosen specially because nobody in the southeast wants elections based on Ukrainian legislation. Why? How can than be done when there’s fire every day, when people are getting killed on both sides?” Putin said at a conference of the Valdai international discussion club.
“The war must be brought to an end at last, the forces must be withdrawn. After this is achieved it will be possible to speak of any rapprochement, any cooperation. Before this has happened it will be difficult to talk about anything else. Dates for elections in the southeast have been discussed, but few people know that there has been an agreement to hold elections in southeastern Ukraine before November 3,” the president said.
“Then, at the last moment, changes about the date were made to the well-known law without asking for anyone’s advice, without consulting the southeast. They [local government elections] were set for December 7. But nobody had spoken to them. Straight away the southeasterners say to us, you can see we’ve got cheated again, and that’s the way it’ll always be,” Putin said.
