Interfax: Matviyenko sure Federation Council permission to send troops to Ukraine won’t be used

Valentina Matviyenko file photo

(Interfax – April 18, 2014) Federation Council Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko is confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not have to use the Federation Council’s permission to send troops to Ukraine for protecting the civilian population.

“I am positive that will not be necessary. The Geneva meeting mapped out ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis (…) I very much hope that this permission [of the Federation Council to send troops to Ukraine] will not be used,” Matviyenko told a press conference in St. Petersburg on Friday.

The Ukrainian crisis should be resolved exclusively in the dialogue between the authorities and society and the search for compromises for the sake of peace and stabil ity in the country, she stressed.

Matviyenko reminded [listeners] that the Federation Council gave the Russian president permission to send troops to Ukraine proceeding from the situation Ukraine found itself in at that moment.

“The events were unpredictable and we believed it was possible to provide the president with every instrument he could use to avert a threat to the security of the civilian population,” Matviyenko said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he hoped he would not have to use the right to send army units to Ukraine he has been given by the parliament.

“Let me remind you that the Federation Council of Russia has granted the president the right to use the Armed Forces in Ukraine. I very much hope I will not have to use this right and we will manage to resolve all pressing, not to say, critical contemporary problems of Ukraine with political and diplomatic means,” Putin said in a Q&A session.

He thi nks Russia should do its utmost to help people in eastern Ukraine stand up for their rights.

“We must do everything to help these people defend their rights and make an independent decision about the future. This is what we will be struggling for,” the Russian president said.

[featured image is file photo]

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