Direct contacts between the Kazakh and Belarusian presidents and the Ukrainian authorities may have a positive influence on Kyiv, State Duma CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Chairman Leonid Slutsky said.
“The more sober-minded people contact Kyiv officials, the bigger the chance is of bringing common sense to this situation, at least, to some extent,” Slutsky told Interfax on Dec.22.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived in Kyiv earlier in the day. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko visited Kyiv the day before.
“Indeed, there is nothing bad about cooperation between Minsk and Astana and Kyiv. Kyiv has declared Russia its enemy but Russia regards the Ukrainian events as a civil conflict inside that country: we are neither its catalyst nor a conflicting side in any capacity,” the deputy said.
Kyiv remains a trade and economic partner of Minsk and Astana and they obviously have the right and should be cooperative at a summit level. “We have no concerns about that whatsoever,” Slutsky said.
At the same time, Slutsky added that Moscow would keep to that position unless “there is negative feedback with negative implications for the Eurasian project. There is no such link as of yet,” the parliamentarian said.
The committee chairman acknowledged a possibility of the discussion of certain collisions at the Tuesday meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. “Hopefully, this will not happen,” the deputy added.
