You're reading: Lavrov: Moscow hopes new Ukraine draft constitution will be presented before 4-party talks

Moscow - Ukraine's new draft constitution should be presented prior to a proposed meeting between Russia, the United States, European Union and Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“If this ten-day period, which, as American representatives have
said, is needed to call this multilateral meeting, was determined
following Mr. Yatsenyuk’s public promises to complete the work on the
draft constitution by April 15, my question is the following: may they
be planning to call this multilateral meeting when the draft
constitution is submitted to the Verkhovna Rada and when all of the
regions that do not trust the currently authorities are simply presented
with an accomplished fact?” he said.

“Furthermore we will be invited to this meeting so that we, by our
presence, could effectively “bless” and legitimatize the draft
constitution, which no one has seen so far,” the Russian minister said.

“I am speaking about this openly because the content of our
negotiations with American representatives are very often distorted for
the benefit of the public,” Lavrov said.

There is a need to “clarify how the work on the Ukrainian constitution is going,” he said.

“The constitutional reform is being handled in secret. Any
information about what exactly is being discussed and what concrete
concepts will form the core of the next draft constitution of Ukraine is
absent,” the minister said.

“I sought to receive certain explanations from [Ukrainian Foreign
Minister] Andriy Deschytsia when we spoke to each other briefly in The
Hague on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit. I also tried to
obtain an explanation from [U.S. Secretary of State] John Kerry, given
that Americans, as far as I understand, are very closely involved in the
process of preparing Ukraine’s new constitution through their influence
on the current authorities in Kyiv. However, we were unable to receive
any clear explanations. The only thing we heard from [Ukraine’s Prime
Minister Arseniy] Mr. Yatseniuk and [Ukrainian acting president and
parliament speaker Oleksandr] Mr. Turchynov was that there would be no
federalization and the regions would only be given some new powers. But
this is a patronizing approach. If you are actually ready to give powers
to the regions, you should invite the regions and listen to what they
have to say. Afterwards, you can start negotiations,” Lavrov said.