MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Kazakhstan support the need of constitutional reforms in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Kazakhstan's foreign minister Erlan Idrisov on Thursday in Moscow.
"Of course we discussed the developing situation in Ukraine. We have similar approaches that the activity by extremists needs to be stopped, help is needed in normalizing the situation in Ukraine, and we support holding an overall constitutional reform taking into account all of the regions," Lavrov said.
Moscow is convinced that the reform should be comprehensive as it's necessarily for Ukraine to overcome internal crisis.
Moscow will insist that the current Ukrainian authorities openly invite all political forces and all regions to participate in the constitutional process, Lavrov said.
"We, along with our Kazakh friends, hope that objective and impartial activity by the OSCE's monitoring mission will add to removing the Ukrainian crisis, help in the observance of the rights and freedom of all residents of the country, including ethnic and language minorities," he said.
On February 22, a regime change took place in Ukraine. The Ukrainian parliament ousted President Victor Yanukovych, changed the constitution and announced early presidential elections for May 25.
Russia has described the uprising in Kiev as an illegitimate fascist coup and a military seizure of power, which resulted in Moscow taking steps to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine, including the reunification of Crimea.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov railed against attempts by the West to justify the actions of the neo-Nazis and their accomplices and called on the US and EU to condemn the extremists.
