In his interview to ARD German TV channel that was recorded in Vladivostok last week ahead of G20 summit, Putin made it clear he won’t allow the Russian-backed separatists to be defeated.
“The central Ukrainian authorities have deployed their armed forces. Even the ballistic missiles are being used there,” Putin said. “What does this mean?.. It tells us that the west want the central authorities in Ukraine to destroy all their political opponents. Do you want this? We don’t want this to happen and we won’t let it happen.”
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But when the interviewer reminded the numerous accusations that Russia is supplying the insurgents with weapons and soldiers, Putin just said: “In the modern world when people who fight and think that their fight is justified will always find arms.”
Putin also confirmed the separatists don’t abide by the Sept. 5 Minsk agreements reached for de-escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, but he said Russia can’t force them to do that. Putin said the insurgents feared that if they leave these territories “nationalists units will enter the village and kill everyone.”
“Sure we try to convince them, we argue with them. But when you hear such things, there aren’t many arguments left,” he said.
Putin put the blame of the Ukrainian authorities, accusing them of lack of will to establish dialogue with the insurgents. “If instead of just defining the demarcation line the Ukrainian authorities want to save territorial integrity of the country… it’s important to stop the bloodshed and mutual bombardments in order to create all prerequisites for the political dialogue. This is important and this is missing now,” he said.
Putin also once again called the Euromaidan Revolution a political coup and blamed the western governments of support Russophobes. “What have you done in order to persuade you clients in Kyiv?.. In terms of supporting Kyiv are you only supporting Russophobes? Which is very dangerous, by the way. It would be a disaster if someone secretly supported Russophobes in Ukraine,” he said addressing to the west.
Putin proposed “sort of single political space,” at the territory of Donbas.
Being asked about reaction of the west regarding annexation of Crimea, Putin said: “We find this reaction absolutely disproportional, disproportional in relation to what happened.”
Putin said he “deeply convinced that Russia has not violated any international laws.” He gave an example of Kosovo, saying that population of Crimea had right of self-determination and made their choice through the referendum.
Despite initially Putin denied presence of Russian “green men” at the peninsula, now he confirmed they acted there. “Our armed forces blocked literally the Ukrainian forces located in Crimea, but it was not in attempt to force anyone to vote, it’s impossible to do so. It was done in order to prevent the bloodshed,” he said.
When speaking about the western sanctions, Putin claimed they were not able to stop the growth of Russian economy. At the same time, he warned the financial measures against the Russian banks could be disastrous for Ukraine.
“Our banks, Russian banks have granted loans to the Ukrainian economy amounting to a total of $25 billion. If our partners in Europe and in the (United) States want to help Ukraine how could they undermine its financial base by restricting access of our financial institutions to international capital markets? What exactly do they want? Do they want our banks to crash? If this were the case then Ukraine would subsequently collapse. Are they thinking at all about what they are doing? Or other blinded by politics?” Putin said laughing.
Putin also said that sanctioned Russian Gazprom bank issued a loan of $3.2 billion to the Ukrainian energy sector and the bank has a right to demand the early repayment as Naftogaz Ukrainian state-run energy company violates the terms of loan servicing. “Yet if we do this, the whole financial system of Ukraine would collapse, if we choose not to do this, our bank might collapse,” Putin said. “So what should we do?”
Putin also mentioned that there was one more Russian loan to Ukraine worth $3 billion, and according to the agreement Russian may demand early repayment if Ukraine’s national debt accedes 60% of its DGP. “We’ve already made a decision not to do this. We don’t want’ to aggravate the situation,” Putin said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at grytsenko@kyivpost.com
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