Interfax: Duma Chairman Naryshkin: West applied unprecedented pressure on Ukraine to sign EU deal
KAZAN. Nov 29 (Interfax) – State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin claims the West applied strong pressure on Ukraine to sign an association agreement with the European Union.
“We all have witnessed unprecedented pressure on Ukraine on the part of Western countries and institutions: highest-ranking European bureaucrats in fact regularly attended not only Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada sessions but also sessions of its committees and even working groups,” Naryshkin told the participants in a forum titled Eurasian Economic Integration: Achievements and Problems in Kazan on Friday.
Naryshkin said he heard this information from some Verkhovna Rada deputies on Thursday. The European officials regularly visiting Ukraine set deadlines by which Ukraine was supposed to implement preconditions of integration with Europe, although these deadlines were then postponed several times, Naryshkin said.
“The arguments of these campaigners also evolved: at the beginning of this year, Ukrainians were promised that association [with the EU] would speedily improve all aspects and level of their lives, but now they are being urged to wait eight to ten years, tighten their belts, be patient, and get over the closure of companies and mass unemployment, after which Euro-happiness might come one day,” he said.
Naryshkin pointed out that the forum in Kazan was being held simultaneously with the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, at which Ukraine was supposed to sign an association agreement with the EU, preparations for which were suspended by the government.
Naryshkin welcomed the Ukrainian government’s recent decision on taking measures to significantly improve Ukraine’s economic ties with Russia and other Customs Union member-states.
The Duma chairman called Ukraine’s involvement in the Eurasian project undeniably beneficial, as this implies the abolition of border and customs control formalities, in which, in his view, most of Russian and Ukrainian citizens are interested, especially the 3 million Ukrainians permanently working in Russia and dozens of millions of Russians and Ukrainians having relatives in both Russia and Ukraine.