Russia's State Duma Committee on CIS, Eurasian Integration and Communication with Compatriots has offered that the lower house adopt a statement on “non-recognition of the results of the presidential election in Ukraine.”
“At the Council of the Duma today, we will consider a statement on the non-recognition of elections," Committee chair Leonid Kalashnikov told TASS, commenting on the preliminary results of the vote count in the first round of presidential elections in Ukraine.
"We approved it at the Committee, we're now recommending to adopt it, so the ball is on the Council's pitch,” said Kalashnikov.
The official claims that "the entire Southeast, Donbas, and Ukrainians who reside in Russia were cut off from voting" in the first round.
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"This is about 5-6 million people, that is, a third of all those who voted. This is the reason for us not to recognize these elections as legitimate," the Russian lawmaker stressed.
However, Kalashnikov made a reservation that such a statement, if adopted, will not automatically rule out any cooperation with the new president of Ukraine, only if it is not incumbent president Petro Poroshenko who get re-elected.
"This doesn't mean we won't cooperate or be in contact with the authorities. But if it's Poroshenko, what cooperation can we talk about? For Russia, he has long been a non-handshakable one," Kalashnikov concluded.
