Press Digest: Attack on Mariupol may drive Russia and West further apart
Shelling of
Mariupol may further complicate Russia’s relations with West
The shelling
on Jan. 24 of the coastal city of Mariupol in Ukraine’s war-torn eastern Donbass
region, which resulted in numerous civilian casualties, threatens not only to
escalate the conflict in Ukraine but also to further complicate Russia’s
relations with the West, which are not easy as it is, writes the Vzglyad
newspaper.
Press Digest: A bus stop bombing in Donetsk, Cooperation Agreement with South Ossetia, and more
Speaking in
Zurich yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the shelling of
Mariupol on pro-autonomy forces and accused Russia of supporting the militants.
Kerry urged Moscow to abandon its backing for the Donbass militias, warning
that otherwise, “U.S. and international pressure on Russia and its allies will
only increase.”
NATO
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also accused Russia of backing militias in
eastern Ukraine. Stoltenberg once again claimed that the alliance was allegedly
observing a Russian military presence in eastern Ukraine “as well as a
significant buildup in Russian military hardware.”
For its
part, Moscow has consistently denied any involvement in events in southeast
Ukraine. The Kremlin maintains that Russia is not a party to what it claims is
an internal conflict taking place on its neighbor’s territory, and would like
to see Ukraine overcome its political and economic crisis.
Against this
backdrop, diplomats are still struggling to turn the situation back at least to
what it was several weeks ago. In the early hours of Jan. 25,
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s press service announced that an
agreement had been reached on the need to hold talks between Russia, Ukraine,
the U.S. and the European Union in the format used in negotiations in Geneva in
the first half of 2014.
PACE to
decide fate of Russian delegation at Strasbourg meeting
The powers
of the Russian delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE), the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and the recent terrorist
attacks in Paris will be the main topics on the agenda of the PACE winter
session, which opens in Strasbourg on Jan. 26, the RIA Novosti news agency
reports.
The issue of
restoring the powers of the Russian delegation at PACE may be considered either
on Jan. 28 or 29. PACE has three options do: To
approve the Russian delegation’s powers, not to approve them, or to approve
them but with certain limitations.
The head of
the State Duma’s international committee, Alexei Pushkov, who represents Russia
at PACE, said that, in his view, PACE will become divided between an
anti-Russian wing and “more realistically-minded” delegations.
In April
2014, because of the Russia’s alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine,
the Russian delegation at PACE was stripped of its rights to vote, to take part
in sessions of the organization’s main bodies and in its monitoring activities.
The Russian delegation has consequently refused to participate in PACE until
its powers are restored. Under PACE regulations, the powers of all delegations
are reviewed at the organization’s winter session.
Moscow may use Ukrainian conflict as bargaining chip
to restructure Kyiv’s
debt
The centrist
newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes that Ukraine’s insolvency has given Moscow
yet another channel for applying pressure on Kyiv. This year, Ukraine has to
pay some $11 billion in external debts, including $3 billion to Russia – a
payment for which the authorities in Kyiv have no reserves to make. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) could save Ukraine from defaulting on its
debts, but requires Ukraine first to agree with its creditors, including
Russia, on restructuring the debt.
Lavrov: Auschwitz liberated by Red Army, attempts to toy with national sentiments are ‘blasphemous and cynical’
Late on Jan. 23,
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with IMF head Christine
Lagarde, at which they discussed possible steps that the IMF may take following
Kyiv’s request to adopt a new long-term credit assistance program, the Kremlin’s
press service reported.
In the
meantime, Russian experts are warning of the considerable risks the IMF would
be taking in allocating funds to a country that is in a state of civil war.
“The issue
of restructuring the debt to Russia should be linked to the demand to
deescalate the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” says Alexei Arbatov, head of the
International Security Centre at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of
World Economy and International Relations. According to Arbatov, the authorities
in Kyiv bear a share of responsibility for the military escalation of the
conflict since the Ukrainian army stands accused of massive shelling of
residential quarters, which constitutes a violation of international
conventions.
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