Russia never escalated crisis in Ukraine: Analyst
Press TV has conducted an interview with Dmitry Babich, radio host of Voice of Russia from Moscow, about Russia urging the interim government in Kyiv to immediately withdraw its troops from eastern Ukraine while ordering the end of drills by Russian forces in regions bordering Ukraine.
What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Is this an attempt by President Putin to de-escalate the crisis?
Babich: Yes and I think that he never escalated the crisis. From the very beginning Russia has been calling for an end of violence in the east of Ukraine. It was the Kyiv government that sent the troops to the southeast of the country against the so-called separatists and these troops have not been particularly successful despite several weeks of fighting and almost ten people die every day in the fighting there.
They haven’t been able even to take that small town of Slavyansk which is the most active in resistance to this new illegitimate government in Kyiv and everyone understands that every shot fired near Slavyansk makes Ukrainian unity more and more utopian.
People in the southeast of Ukraine who held a referendum, they favored self-determination at the referendum last Sunday and they are basically insulted by every shot fired near Slavyansk.
Also Putin has always called for dialogue. You know the freshest information is that today he welcomed the start of contacts between the government in Kyiv and the self- defense forces in the southeast of Ukraine.
Press TV: But you know Mr. Babich, from the Ukrainian point of view I would imagine the argument goes that it is within their borders so they can move within their borders as they wish if they wish to move to the east of Ukraine where they want to keep of course the country one country. How do you believe the Russians will respond to that?
Babich: Well the problem is that just two months ago in Kyiv, people who are now ruling Ukraine, they were throwing Molotov cocktails at police killing dozens of policemen and at that time they said that if Yanukovych uses the army against them, this would mean crossing the red line and they were supported by the West wholeheartedly.
And now when similar protest took place in the southeast, actually it [was] less violent, policemen were not burnt alive there, people just occupied the administrative buildings, now suddenly using the army is OK and the West does not protest in any way. So this is the problem of a clear double standard and intervention, interference of the West in Ukrainian affairs.
And when you say from the Ukrainian point of view, people who are now being killed in Slavyansk, people who are locked up in their cities by the army, they are also Ukrainian citizens. The majority of them speak Russian but they are Ukrainian citizens. Why is the Ukrainian government which has not been elected, why is it treating its citizens in this way?
Press TV: And finally Mr. Babich, should we hold out any hope that the current interim authorities in Kyiv will listen to President Putin?
Babich: They won’t listen to Putin. They demonize Putin and they unfortunately treat in their controlled media the people in the southeast of Ukraine as almost sub humans. They call them Sovietized, they call them good-for-nothings, and they call them insects, so everything will depend on the actions of this government in Kyiv and its Western sponsors.
If they stop the so-called anti-terrorist information, if they stop to bomb and to bombard the cities where Russian-speaking people live, I think peace is still achievable and Ukraine will stay a one country. But as long as this military operation continues, the longer it continues the less other chances that Ukraine will stay a united country.
AHK/AB