Kiev ignored independent assessment of snipers at Maidan – Lavrov

Authorities in Kiev have routinely ignored evidence in the case of sniper shootings on the Maidan, while suggestions of probes into the matter never came from official channels, Russian FM Lavrov said according to RT.

Part of the agreement signed by President Yanukovich and the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition, involved the prospect of a joint investigation into the events of February 20 and what preceded them, Mr Lavrov told journalists following a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

However, “those who seized power tore it up” and “forgot about issues like stopping radical elements and disarming armed groups,” he said.

Those who fought at Independence Square were amnestied, but calls for investigations are suddenly appearing six weeks later, the FM continued.

Independent experts have been giving their analysis of sniper activity, their tactics and their positions, but this has all been ignored, Lavrov said in an answer to why Moscow was less enthusiastic about investigating Kiev than it was Crimea.

The telephone conversation between the EU’s Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet was also ignored, in which they clearly discuss a cover-up to place the blame of civilian deaths on the opposition and not on the ousted government. In that 11-minute conversation, posted on YouTube, Paet says he heard word that the shooting of police and civilians in Kiev in February was the work of provocateurs working with the protest movement, and not Yanukovich’s security forces; to which Ashton replies: “I didn’t know… Gosh.”

Continuing on Ukraine, Lavrov stated that “the West has in effect taken upon itself the role of the master of the Ukrainians’ fates,” especially at a time when the Ukrainian government isn’t “capable of self-sufficiency.”

The reason for the continuing lack of consensus on the crisis stems from the inability of the current government to “respect without exception the rights of all Ukrainians – among them the right to use one’s mother tongue – as well as the inability to respect the wishes of all the country’s regions,” Lavrov underlined.

The FM finished with a reminder that Russia has on several occasions proposed constitutional reform in Ukraine, and which would go a long way toward diffusing the political situation there.

The fight against terrorism was a priority for those who wanted to settle the Syria crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. “The Syrian problem has no relationship to Ukraine except that both countries made attempts to change the regime. Ukraine’s attempt was successful,” Lavrov said. “All UN Security Council resolutions consider terrorism in all its forms unacceptable. It cannot be justified on any grounds,” he added.

“A year ago the G8 summiteers agreed that the Syrian government and the patriotic opposition had joined efforts to combat terrorism and expel terrorists from Syria,” he said.

“Any talk of al-Assad’s resignation being a precondition for the Geneva conference is inadmissible,” Lavrov said.

Ukrainian crisis won’t be resolved until Kiev respects rights of all citizens – Lavrov

Ukraine has to overcome internal altercations for settling the crisis, and this requires a constitutional reform and the end to foreign interference in the affairs of this country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “Main altercations, the settlement of which is essential for stopping the crisis, exist inside Ukraine,” he told a press conference after a session of the CIS foreign ministers in Moscow, the Voice of Russia correspondent Kira Kalinina reports.

These altercations derive from the inability of the incumbent Kiev authorities to demonstrate full and equal respect for the rights of all Ukrainians and national minorities, the Russian minister said.

“I do not think the current stage of the crisis can end and the situation can take a political turn before these altercations are eliminated,” he continued.

“This – and you are aware of our position and our proposal – requires the beginning of a genuine rather than cosmetic constitutional reform and the end to interference in Ukrainian internal affairs,” Lavrov said.

“Meanwhile, the West has assumed the role of the arbiter of this country’s fate and the incumbent authorities are not sufficiently independent, as I have already mentioned,” the Russian foreign minister concluded.

West adopts role of arbiter of fate in Ukraine; it should cease to interfere – Lavrov

In regard to Ukraine the West has assumed the role of arbiter of fate, and the Kiev authorities do not show sufficient independence yet, head of the MFA of Russia, Sergey Lavrov said Friday. According to the Minister, in order to carry out transformations, Ukraine should “engage in a constitutional reform.”

“Not a cosmetic one. It is necessary to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine. But now it seems that the West has adopted the role of arbiter of this country’s fate, and the current government, as I’ve already said, lacks independence so far,” Lavrov said.

M.A.