Viktor Yanukovych had no chances of being re-elected as president of Ukraine for a new term and therefore the opposition had no reason to take unconstitutional steps to overthrow him.
“He [Yanukovych] essentially surrendered all power, and I think, and I have told him that, that he had no chances of being reelected,” Putin told reporters in Novo-Ogaryovo on Tuesday.
“Everyone agrees with that. All my colleagues with whom I talked on the phone in the past few days,” Putin said.
“Why did they have to take illegal anti-constitutional actions and put the country in this chaos?” Putin said.
Putin recalled that the Ukrainian legislation envisages three grounds for the termination of the president’s powers: his death, his resignation, and impeachment.
“That procedure was not conducted. For this reason, it’s an indisputable fact from a legal viewpoint. Maybe that’s why the current so-called administration made a decision to disband the Constitutional Court, which contradicts all legislative norms, both of Ukraine and the EU,” Putin said.
Putin said the current Ukrainian administration has ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to open criminal cases against members of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court.
“What is that? Is that called free justice? How can you order the opening of criminal cases? If there is a crime, law enforcement agencies should react, but such an order is nonsense,” Putin said.
