MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia considers Kurdish sovereignty to be a domestic issue best to be left to the Iraqi government and will not meddle in Iraq’s internal affairs, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"As for the issues of sovereignty and independence of parts of states, I presume we will act within international laws and the rights of the Kurdish people, its inalienable rights will eventually be secured. But how and in what form this will be done depends on Iraq and the Kurdish people," Putin said at the annual news conference.
"We have and remain in contact with both Baghdad and [Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital] Erbil but we are not going to interfere in Iraq’s internal process," Putin pledged, stressing that Russia "has always been friends with the Kurdish people."
