MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – Kiev and the West should abstain from confrontational rhetoric and accommodate the concerns of federalists in Ukraine by supporting the peaceful reorganization of the country, New York University professor in Prague Vlad Sobell told RIA Novosti on Monday.
“Instead of pursuing such a confrontational stance, both Kiev and the West should accommodate the concerns of the federalists by peaceful re-organization of Ukraine,” Sobell said.
“Indeed, is it not absurd that a country with so much regional divergence is actually constitutionally a unitary state? And yes, if the southeastern regions subsequently opt to maintain strong economic and cultural ties with Russia, why oppose this organic relationship? After all, this would be an essential condition for their future prosperity, from which everyone, including Kiev and the West, would benefit,” Sobell said.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s southeastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk held referendums on self-rule. According to preliminary data, over 90 percent of residents in both regions supported the acts of state self-determination of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Moscow praised the high turnout despite Kiev’s attempts to foil the vote.
US-based author and blogger David Swanson told RIA Novosti that the federalists “should commit to nonviolence and proceed with self-governance, and appeal to the world for fair economic trade without IMF-like strings attached.”
“There can be no doubt that from the logistics’ aspect the referendums on self-rule in Donetsk and Luhansk left much to be desired,” Sobell said, adding that the referendums were organized hastily and in a volatile and highly charged environment.
“Equally, however, it would be absurd to maintain, as mainstream Western media and politicians have been doing, that the referendums were a farce with zero credibility. Such insensitive and evidently false pronouncements serve only to highlight the moral bankruptcy of Western leaders and debunk their claim that they are upholding Ukraine’s democracy in the face of Russia’s authoritarianism,” Sobell asserted.
The Kremlin said in a statement Monday it respected the will of the people in Ukraine’s southeast and urged the regime in Kiev to do the same. Moscow said it condemned “the use of force including military hardware against peaceful citizens which led to deaths” during the referendums. The US and other Western governments said they wouldn’t recognize the outcome.
“Indeed, it is odd to hear Ukraine’s interim President Turchynov describing the referendums’ organizers as ‘terrorists’ and ‘saboteurs,’ given that his regime has yet to win legitimacy in nationwide elections,” Sobell said.
Commenting on the referendums, Turchynov accused Moscow of attempting to disrupt a presidential election scheduled for May 25. Though Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier suggested protesters in eastern Ukraine postpone the referendums and use the help of the international community under the coordination of the OSCE to influence the so-called Kiev authorities to stop the ongoing military operation in the country and began to de-escalate the crisis.
“There is only one realistic solution. The West and Kiev must stop demonizing President Putin, stop talking about sanctions and engage in a constructive trilateral dialogue on how to overcome Ukraine’s crisis and place the country’s economy on a sustainable footing. This is also what the supporters of federalization reforms should aim for. They now have more powerful democracy-based ammunition at their disposal and should calmly and patiently demand to be heard,” Sobell told RIA Novosti.
Following a regime change in late February, the citizens of the predominantly Russian-speaking southeastern regions of Ukraine refused to recognize the legitimacy of the country’s interim government and called for federalization and referendums on greater autonomy, with rallies sweeping through the region.
In response to the demands, Kiev launched a special operation to crack down on the protesters, leading to violent clashes with dozens of casualties. Moscow condemned the operation as a dangerous development.
