Chairman of the Political Council of the Opposition Platform — For Life party Viktor Medvedchuk. File photoKYIV, Jan 22Viktor Medvedchuk, chairman of the political council of the Opposition Platform — For Life party, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, called the creation of a «friendship group» between the parliaments of Russia and Ukraine an important step towards normalizing relations between the countries. Previously, groups were formed in the State Duma for interaction with the parliaments of other countries, in including with Britain, the USA and Ukraine – Evgeny Popov became its curator. According to him, the cooperation groups with the parliaments of the United States and Ukraine will work not only with parliaments, it is planned to work with all healthy forces in Ukraine, including those outside the Rada.
The Rada proposed a set of measures to resolve the situation in the Donbass»The State Duma has created a deputy group for relations with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, headed by Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Popov … The creation of a friendship group between the parliaments of Russia and Ukraine is an important step towards normalizing relations between our countries,» Medvedchuk said in a statement published on his party's website. According to him, this initiative is timely and essential for the two states. «Under these conditions, in order to prevent further escalation, it is the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, as the highest representative body in a state with a parliamentary-presidential form of government, that is able to take responsibility and successfully resolve the current situation through open dialogue and reasonable compromise,» — Medvedchuk noted. Relations between Moscow and Kiev deteriorated after the reunification of Crimea with Russia and against the background of the armed conflict in the Donbass. The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the internal affairs of the state, and in January 2015 they officially declared it an «aggressor country.» The Russian Federation has repeatedly stressed that it does not participate in the intra-Ukrainian conflict and is not a subject of the Minsk agreements. Russia has repeatedly rejected the accusations of the West and Ukraine of «aggressive actions», stating that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and statements about «aggression RF» are being used as an excuse to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted earlier that Western statements about «Russian aggression» and the possibility of helping Kiev defend itself against it are both ridiculous and dangerous. At the same time, Kiev and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in «aggressive actions» by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is moving troops within its territory and at its own discretion. According to him, this does not threaten anyone and should not worry anyone. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine.
