RIA Novosti: Ukraine Better Off Holding Presidential Election – Parliament Speaker

Russian State Duma Building file photo

MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – Not holding the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine scheduled for May 25 would be worse for the country than holding them, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said Wednesday.

“It’s difficult for me to imagine that such elections could be completely legitimate. But it is obvious that not holding [presidential] elections would be even a sadder situation. A choice between bad and worse needs to be made for the lesser of the two evils,” Naryshkin said during a televised interview broadcast on Russia’s Rossiya-24.

Naryshkin stressed that, whatever the final decision, the government’s “level of legitimacy” would be dubious considering the manner in which the regime came to power in February in Kiev.

“Taking into account that the current authorities in Ukraine are illegitimate, a level of legitimacy of the [polit ical] powers and the president who would take office if the elections were held, in my opinion, would not be complete,” Naryshkin said.

According to him, it is very difficult to imagine legitimate elections when the Ukrainian army is being used in regions where a large part of the country’s population resides.

Naryshkin also said he believed there was still a window of opportunity open for a nationwide reconciliation dialogue between all sides of the Ukrainian crisis.

“I’m deeply convinced that the crisis in Ukraine has gone too far while the conflict is still escalating. But there are still some reserves left to stem the crisis and scale it back,” the lawmaker noted.

Naryshkin said that the standoff in Ukraine was a domestic issue that could be resolved through a constitutionally-binding “social agreement.” He added that Russia was willing to provide the conflicting parties with the necessary political and diplomatic help.

Ukrai ne saw a regime change in February after the so-called Maidan mass rallies in Kiev. The Ukrainian parliament backed by far-right movements ousted elected president Viktor Yanukovych, amended the country’s constitution and scheduled early elections for May 25.

Moscow has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the current Kiev authorities, saying that the legitimacy of the upcoming election will depend on a number of conditions including transparency and the interests of the regions.

Earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics, which held a referendum Sunday on the status of their respective regions, declared they would not take part in the May 25 election.

 

Comment