The Kremlin has announced that the United States and Russia have agreed
to coordinate efforts on a bilateral basis to regulate the situation in
Ukraine, without engaging Washington in the Normandy format.
"And,
so as not to break everything up, we have agreed together that we will be
coordinating our activities on Ukraine on a bilateral basis for the time
being," Russian presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said in an
interview shown in a Saturday analytical program hosted by Sergei Brilyov on
the Rossiya-1 TV Channel.
According to
him, there was an agreement to set up a special U.S.-Russian bilateral format
with the participation of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who had to coordinate U.S. and
Russian efforts in settling the Ukraine crisis.
"In
principle, we could do this – expand the Normandy format by including one more
country, engaging the U.S. But the Normandy format is so fragile now that this
step would simply be risky," Ivanov said.
In his words,
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's visit has "demonstrated that the
Americans are also starting to worry" that the situation in Ukraine might
go out of control.
"As for
the situation that is going out of control, as they often like to say. No
matter how ironically this might sound, they should be quite accustomed to
this. Hasn't it gone out of control in Iraq? Hasn't it gone out of control in
Libya? Or hasn't it gone out of control in Syria? Now it's also gone out of
control in Ukraine. Excuse me my language, but wherever they meddle, the
situation goes out of control," Ivanov said.
"And
most likely, they have started wishing to really settle that crisis," he
added.
Ivanov
stressed that Russia supports the existing Ukrainian borders, which include the
Donbas territory seized by Russian-backed militants now.
"I
believe we have exerted very serious influence, because the
rebels have made a fundamental step – they've changed their position. They
already voted for their independence last year, but now they say: 'We are ready
to remain part of Ukraine if the Minsk agreements are implemented,'" he
said.
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