MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurtz have discussed the situation in Ukraine as well as the role of the Council of Europe in its resolution, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
"The focus of the meeting was the situation in Ukraine, the ways out of the crisis, the assistance of the Council of Europe in stabilization of the situation,” the ministry said in a statement.
The pair met in Vienna on Monday on the sidelines of the 124th ministerial session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, where Kurtz serves as the current chairman.
Lavrov also met with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland. The meeting also touched on "the question of the contribution that the Council of Europe could make to strengthen democratic stability in Europe and to help reform the Ukrainian legislation in accordance with the norms and standards of the Council of Europe."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday that talks on the situation in Ukraine, including by the OSCE, may take place on the sidelines of Tuesday’s meeting.
The Russian Civic Chamber earlier announced it was preparing an appeal to the UN and the Council of Europe with a proposal to postpone the presidential elections in Ukraine, scheduled for the end of May, until the situation in the country is stabilized.
The chamber thinks that the elections are doomed to be falsified and in practice will only provoke further escalation of the conflict, when the country is already knee deep in bloody clashes.
