Russian official sees no “national leader” among Ukraine presidential candidates

(Interfax – Moscow, April 1, 2014) Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko believes that there is no national leader among the candidates registered for the presidential election in Ukraine.

“I do not see a single national leader who could unite Ukraine and become a president elected nationwide among the candidates for the Ukrainian presidential post. For the time being I do not see such a national leader among the candidates registered,” Matviyenko told Interfax.

According to her, if the election takes place and is recognized as legitimate, although, in her words, this is ‘highly questionable’, only the candidate who will speak in favour of strengthening and expanding cooperation with Russia will be able to win.

“A different thing simply cannot happen, since the majority of regions are tied to Russia economically and developing cooperation with the country is a matter of survival for Ukraine’s manufacturing industry, this is the issue of preserving jobs, salaries and welfare of the society,” Matviyenko said.

She believes that only the candidate who will act from the position of common sense in favour of cooperation with Russia will have the highest chance of being elected in Ukraine in general.

“The candidate who will look up to the West only has no chance of being elected,” she said.

Matviyenko does not rule out that the election may not be held on the scheduled day, 25 May. Commenting on the issue, she said that “no one knows how the situation in Ukraine will develop in future”.

“The presidential election should be transparent and democratic, they should not be held at the gun point of radical militants, there should be freedom of media, freedom and equal conditions for the candidates to speak. We should wait and see how the situation will develop, it is not yet clear now,” Matviyenko said, adding that only time and further developments in Ukraine will show whether the election will be recognized as legitimate.

[featured image is file photo]