RIA Novosti: Putin’s remarks on Ukraine were distorted, says Russian business union head

Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still

(RIA Novosti – April 6, 2015)

Aleksandr Shokhin, the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks during a meeting with the union’s administrative office have been distorted in an article by Forbes magazine, RIA Novosti (part of the state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya) reported on 6 April.

According to Forbes, Putin told participants in the meeting that his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, had suggested that the Russian leader “take Donbass [region of east Ukraine]”, and that Putin had replied: “Have you gone mad? I do not need Donbass. If you do not need it, then declare its independence.” Forbes cited one of the meeting’s participants, who, it said, wished to remain anonymous.

“It is a fact that Vladimir Vladimirovich’s words have been distorted. He was talking about Russia’s relationship with Ukraine, the fulfillment of the Minsk accords, but I am not going to relay his words… [ellipsis as received] This is a false interpretation, and I do not intend to comment or relay his words,” Shokhin said, adding that the meeting with Putin had been closed, and that “those who share sensations with journalists act, mildly speaking, improperly”.

Shokhin added that this incident marked a betrayal of the RUIE, according to a separate report published by RIA Novosti the same day.

“After such a leak I will not be able to insist on closed meetings; one of my colleagues has strongly betrayed the RUIE, the RUIE office and our relationship with the presidential administration. Let it remain on their conscience,” Shokhin said.

“As it turns out, everybody will have to bear responsibility for one of our colleagues,” he added.

 

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