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Russia Stops Short of Recognizing East Ukraine Secession Vote Russia Stops Short of Recognizing East Ukraine Secession Vote
(about 4 hours later)
MOSCOW — The Russian government stopped short on Monday of outright recognition of the contentious referendums carried out by separatists in two Russian-speaking provinces of southeastern Ukraine, instead using the results to intensify pressure for some kind of negotiated autonomy for those provinces. MOSCOW — Russia stopped short on Monday of outright recognition of the contentious referendums organized by separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian-speaking provinces of southeast Ukraine, instead using the results to intensify pressure for a negotiated autonomy for those provinces.
The separatists declared that the voting on Sunday showed overwhelming support for autonomy, and in one of the provinces, Donetsk, separatist leaders were quoted by the Russian news media as saying they wanted their province to become part of Russia. But the authorities in Moscow avoided any suggestion that they would use the results in the same way they had used the Crimean Peninsula referendum in March. Within 48 hours of the Crimea vote, President Vladimir V. Putin gave a speech from the Kremlin declaring that Russia would annex Crimea, which was once part of Russia. The separatist leader of the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk wasted no time in announcing that his province wanted to join Russia, but the question seemed to be whether Moscow was interested.
This time, the Kremlin issued a statement saying only that it “respects the will of the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” and that the outcome should be reached through dialogue between representatives of the easterners and of the national government in Kiev, according to a translation provided by the Interfax news agency. Russia avoided any suggestion that it would react to the results with the same alacrity seen after the Crimean Peninsula referendum in March. Within hours of that vote, President Vladimir V. Putin declared that Russia was annexing Crimea, part of southern Ukraine that had once been part of Russia.
The Russian government did not even say that it recognized the results of the voting, which the authorities in Kiev and their Western supporters all declared illegal from the start. This time, the Kremlin issued a statement saying only that it “respects the will of the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” and that the crisis should be resolved through dialogue between representatives of the easterners and the national government in Kiev.
Russia stated its position as the European Union intensified efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine and to allow a presidential election scheduled for May 25 to proceed, with Russian agreement. The Russian government did not even say that it recognized the results of the voting, which the authorities in Kiev and their Western supporters all declared illegal from the start. A preliminary count from eastern Ukraine showed 89 percent of voters in the Donetsk region and 97.5 percent in neighboring Luhansk voted for greater autonomy.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany said he would travel to Kiev and then to Paris on Tuesday. Hours later, Denis Pushilin, leader of the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” said the results showed that the people wanted to be part of Russia.
A veteran German diplomat, Wolfgang Ischinger, will act for the international group that is trying to mediate in the crisis, the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “We ask the Russian Federation to consider the issue of accession of the Donetsk People’s Republic to the Russian Federation,” he told a televised news conference. “The people of Donetsk have always been part of the Russian world, regardless of ethnicity. For us, the history of Russia is our history.”
The current chairman of that group, Didier Burkhalter, the president of Switzerland, who met with Mr. Putin last week, told European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday about a “road map” meant to lead to a peaceful resolution. Mr. Pushilin then elaborated about that history, while echoing Moscow’s line that the current government in Kiev was composed of “Nazis.” He also said the Ukrainian military had left hundreds dead in recent confrontations, although there was no evidence to support that estimate. Finally, he said the eastern regions would not hold the national presidential vote scheduled for May 25, creating the basis for another possible confrontation.
“We have reached a pivotal moment in this crisis, both for Ukraine and for Europe,” Mr. Burkhalter said, according to a text provided by the group. “The window of opportunity is likely to be short.” From Moscow, there was no direct reaction. But soon after Mr. Pushilin’s announcement, the Foreign Ministry issued another statement echoing what Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov had said earlier in the day — that the crisis in Ukraine must be solved through dialogue between Kiev and the east.
Mr. Burkhalter has been circulating among European capitals, including Moscow, to discuss how mediation might work. The O.S.C.E. is the conduit because it includes both the European Union’s member states and those of the former Soviet Union, including Russia and Ukraine. In possibly the most important reaction, Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest oligarch and the biggest employer in the industrial eastern regions, known together as Donbass, said his main aim was the kind of happiness that came through a strong economy and good jobs.
According to early results from eastern Ukraine, 89 percent of voters in the Donetsk region and 97.5 percent in neighboring Luhansk voted for greater autonomy, but it remained uncertain whether the two provinces would follow the Crimean Peninsula in seeking to be annexed by Russia. Opponents of autonomy and separatism appeared to stay away from the polls. “I am strongly convinced that Donbass can be happy only in a united Ukraine,” said Mr. Akhmetov, who previously had kept his position ambiguous. “I am for a strong Donbass in a strong Ukraine.”
The Kremlin statement went on to repeat the position that Mr. Putin outlined in a speech last Wednesday, which basically called for a negotiated settlement. “In the interests of establishing such a dialogue, all mediation efforts will be welcome, including by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” the Kremlin statement read. Analysts have long maintained that while Crimea was long considered part of Russia, Moscow was not interested in the cost, in money or lives, to annex the east, not to mention the Western economic sanctions that would result. Should Kiev attempt to end the separatist movement by force, however, Russia might still intervene militarily.
In Kiev, Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, dismissed the voting in the east as an illegal sham. He issued a statement calling the ballots a “propaganda farce,” news reports said, “with no legal consequences except the criminal responsibility” of the organizers.
But Mr. Turchynov repeated that he was ready to “continue dialogue with those in the east of Ukraine, who have no blood on their hands and who are ready to defend their goals in a legitimate way,” Agence France-Press reported.
At a Moscow news conference, Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister, said the time was over for additional talks between Russia, the United States, the European Union and Kiev about how to emerge from the crisis. That had to be negotiated now by the Ukrainians themselves, Mr. Lavrov said.
With the overthrow of President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine in February, Russia lost its main ally in Kiev, and it has not warmed to any of the presidential candidates running in elections scheduled for May 25. Instead, it has pushed for “federalization,” which many interpret as keeping the southeastern portions of the country within Moscow’s orbit.
This would prevent Ukraine from getting too close to Europe — the rejection of an association agreement with the European Union set off the uprising in Kiev last fall — and certainly from joining NATO.
“The referendum is seen in Moscow not as a quasi-legitimate basis or reason to raise questions about secession from Ukraine,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a foreign policy review. “Rather it is seen as an instrument to force other parties of the conflict to accept the People’s Republic as part of the negotiations.”“The referendum is seen in Moscow not as a quasi-legitimate basis or reason to raise questions about secession from Ukraine,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a foreign policy review. “Rather it is seen as an instrument to force other parties of the conflict to accept the People’s Republic as part of the negotiations.”
The separatists in eastern Ukraine, who have seized government buildings in about a dozen cities and towns, styled themselves the People’s Republic of Donetsk. The heavily industrialized southeast has long been a bastion of support for Russia. In another move to pressure Kiev, the head of Gazprom, the gas company controlled by the Russian government, announced it would send Ukraine an advance bill on Tuesday for deliveries in June. Gazprom’s chief executive, Alexei Miller, had previously said it would send the bill on May 16, but Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev demanded the bill be delivered immediately.
While Russia seems to have thrown its weight behind negotiations rather than intervention, given the growing level of violence in the region, it remained possible that bloodshed would derail a negotiated compromise. Russia has repeatedly increased the amount it says Ukraine owes, to around $20 billion, versus $2 billion in early March. It has threatened to cut off the gas if Ukraine does not pay in advance, which could also affect deliveries to Western Europe that transit Ukraine.
Kiev has said it will not negotiate with the “terrorists” who seized buildings using arms and organized the referendum, and that it will start such discussions only after the forces relinquish the buildings. The separatists in turn said they would not talk to members of the government in Kiev, whom they describe as “fascists” and “neo-Nazis,” until all the armed forces dispatched to the east were withdrawn. Russia stated its position on the referendum as the European Union intensified efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine and to allow the May 25 presidential election to proceed, with Russian agreement.
Kiev accuses Russia of organizing the secessionist movement in the east, which it denies. Russia accuses the entire Kiev government of supporting Right Sector, a fervently anti-Russian group whose ideology is drawn partly from a nationalist party that at one time collaborated briefly with the Nazis against the Soviet Army during World War II. The current chairman of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Didier Burkhalter, the president of Switzerland, who met with Mr. Putin last week, told European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels about a “road map” meant to lead to a peaceful resolution.
With the referendum out of the way, attention is now focused on the May 25 presidential elections. Although Russia was initially adamantly opposed, Mr. Putin softened his stance last Wednesday. “We have reached a pivotal moment in this crisis, both for Ukraine and for Europe,” Mr. Burkhalter said. “The window of opportunity is likely to be short.”
Many now see the elections as a chance for Ukraine to start over with a new political leadership that could use its mandate to forge a compromise between the demands of the various regions. Mr. Burkhalter has been circulating among European capitals to discuss how mediation might work. The O.S.C.E. is the conduit because it includes both the European Union’s member states and those of the former Soviet Union, including Russia and Ukraine.
“The optimal scenario is that step by step, despite current very different positions, they will move to real nationwide reconciliation talks,” Mr. Lukyanov said. The Kremlin statement on the referendum repeated the position that Mr. Putin outlined in a speech last Wednesday, which basically called for a negotiated settlement. “In the interests of establishing such a dialogue, all mediation efforts will be welcome, including by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” the Kremlin statement read.
But Russian intervention is still possible, he noted, if the authorities in Ukraine try to crush the separatist movement by force. In Kiev, Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, dismissed the voting in the east as an illegal sham. But Mr. Turchynov repeated that he was ready to talk with easterners “who have no blood on their hands and who are ready to defend their goals in a legitimate way.”
Western countries have backed the Kiev authorities in rejecting the outcome of the ballots, which could offer Moscow a pretext to fulfill its pledge to protect Ukraine’s Russian speakers. With the overthrow of President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine in February, Russia lost its main ally in Kiev keeping the country from getting too close to Europe. Although its initial opposition to the elections has softened, Russia has still pushed instead for “federalization,” which many interpret as keeping the southeast portions of the country within Moscow’s orbit.
In Brussels, where the 28-nation European Union has previously announced asset freezes intended to show its disapproval of Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis, foreign ministers planned to announce a modest tightening of the sanctions, slightly widening the scope of asset freezes to include some companies as well as individuals. Many now see the elections as a chance for Ukraine to start over with a new political leadership that could forge a compromise between the demands of the various regions.
But analysts said there would most likely be no move toward more serious sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy. In Brussels, the European Union, eager to curb Russian support for the separatists but wary of rupturing economic relations with a major source of its energy supplies, on Monday announced a modest expansion of an asset freeze aimed at individual Russians and others it accuses of stoking the crisis. Russia’s Foreign Ministry cricitized the action saying it “undermined trust.”