Interfax: Russia’s ruling party distances itself from MP Vladimir Zhirinovskiy’s territorial claims on Ukraine

(Interfax – Moscow, March 20, 2014) The parliamentary majority does not share [LDPR party leader] Vladimir Zhirinovskiy’s view that Russia has to expand its borders by incorporating Donbass [industrial area of Ukraine around Donetsk] and some other regions of Ukraine.

“I would like to comment on the LDPR leader and say that some of his calls and judgments are not the position of all of the State Duma; we cannot agree with him,” head of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs Aleksey Pushkov told journalists on Thursday [20 March].

Pushkov was referring to Zhirinovskiy’s saying at the State Duma meeting on Thursday that the existing land border with Ukraine has to be expanded [as received]. “We have to move on, and this border, it is too early to set it forever, this would mean abandoning millions of Russians in Donbass, Kherson, Mykolayiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, Odessa,” the LDPR leader said.

“What Vladimir Volfovich [Zhirinovskiy] said i! s not the position of the One Russia parliamentary party, nor do we believe it to be the position of the majority of the State Duma,” Pushkov responded to this. He added that “the border that exists today between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and lies between Crimea and Ukraine, is final”.

“The president of the country also clearly said that we do not need a split Ukraine, we intend to protect the rights of our compatriots in Ukraine by political, diplomatic and economic methods,” the Duma committee head added.

“We care about the future not only of those millions of Russians and Russian speakers who live in Ukrainian territory; we care about the future of the Ukrainian people, and Russia attaches great importance to building constructive relations with Ukraine when legitimate authorities appear [there],” Pushkov said. However, “the incumbent authorities are not in that category”, he added.

[featured image is file photo]