Russia intensified the rhetoric against the government in Kiev. Foreign Minister Lavrov calls on Ukraine to demonstrate their independence from the West to the test. Otherwise it looked as decide the West over the country’s future.
The Russian government has asked Ukraine to profound constitutional reforms. Cosmetic changes were not enough, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday in Moscow.
The neighboring country had put its independence from the West to the test and regulate its own business alone, so the exhortation of the minister. “Otherwise it looks like the West decide on the future of Ukraine.” Lavrov expressed shortly before the meeting of foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) in Athens, which deals with the consequences of the Crimean crisis.
It is also about the question of how the relationship with Russia to design the future. About further sanctions but should only be spoken if Moscow should intervene outside the Crimea in Ukraine.
Crimean Crisis:”Any withdrawal of troops was only symbolic”
Included Russia in the Russian Federation in March for a referendum on the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine so far . The move has led to the greatest tension between East and West since the end of the Cold War .
British Foreign Secretary William Hague accused Moscow of having not yet taken steps to defuse the situation in crisis around the Crimean Peninsula. ” Any withdrawal of troops was only symbolic ,” Hague said . ” So we have seen no real de-escalation by Russia. Europe must not therefore relax . ”
The Federal Government also called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the border area as announced. The task now ask that this will be detected implemented and the tension along the border decreased noticeably , said government spokesman Steffen Seibert .
In the West, it is feared that the Russian government could have thrown an eye on the eastern Ukraine. As in the Crimea there has a large population of russian origin. Lavrov had repeatedly called for more rights for minorities in Ukraine and föderalere structures and Russian as an official language .
Crimean Crisis:EU plans currently appears to be no strict economic sanctions
However, the EU will present apparently still impose drastic economic sanctions against Russia, but this only prepare. This became apparent at the start of a meeting of foreign ministers. “This is not the moment for the economic sanctions., But we must be ready, because the situation is very dangerous,” Hague said.
The EU after Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea previously decided visa bans and account lockouts against 33 Russians and Ukrainians and threatened economic sanctions.
The World Bank considers in Ukraine despite the current unrest, economic growth of three percent next year possible. The prerequisite is a implementation of structural reforms, said World Bank expert Anastasia Golowatsch on Friday in Kiev. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and industrialized countries have pledged billions available to allow the Eastern European country to bring its financial system in order and can lay the foundations for growth.
The inflation rate is expected to be at 15 percent according to estimates by the World Bank. Recently, the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom raised the price of gas for Ukraine drastically.
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