Ukraine rebel elections illegitimate, says new EU foreign policy chief In first newspaper interview in office, Federica Mogherini questions whether sanctions would force Russian policy shift. The “illegal and illegitimate” elections in breakaway eastern Ukraine on Sunday may have killed off all prospects of a political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine crisis, the European Union’s new foreign policy chief warned on Monday, while also questioning whether EU sanctions on Russia would force Vladimir Putin into a policy shift. In her first newspaper interview as successor to Britain’s Catherine Ashton , Federica Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister, told the Guardian that the rebel elections, supported by Moscow and denounced almost everywhere else, were a grave setback to the chances of Russia and Ukraine reaching a deal on the country’s future structure. On her first working day in office as high representative for foreign and security policy, chairing meetings of EU foreign ministers as well as being a vice-president of the new European commission, Mogherini doubted whether the blunt instrument of economic and financial sanctions against Russia, while hurting, were having any impact on Putin’s thinking and behaviour. “The effect of sanctions on the Russian economy are clear to everybody, first to the Russians and to the Russian leadership, and the surroundings of the Russian leadership, the circle that is close to the Russian political leadership,” she said. “The real point is, is that going to be the element that is going to change significantly the Russian political attitude towards the crisis? This is still an open question mark and the answer is only in the hands of the Russian authorities. But we need an answer to that question mark before we go on.” Mogherini’s remarks to the Guardian and five other European newspapers will harden suspicions that she is more dovish than hawkish on Putin, in line with Italian foreign policy which has been relatively pro-Russia in recent years. But she denounced the elections in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of eastern Ukraine as illegal and illegitimate and praised President Petro Poroshenko for his full commitment to the Minsk accords signed this year with Russia, which preserved the territorial integrity of Ukraine while allowing for regional autonomy and local elections in the east. Although the accords have not been properly implemented, EU capitals believe they represent the sole chance of avoiding a much worse conflict in Ukraine. Mogherini worried that the Minsk window may be closing. “What happens if the Minsk protocol is dead?” she asked. “I still think that there is enough political will, for sure in Ukraine, and we have to go and test if there is in Moscow commitment to the Minsk protocol. “If we declare that process dead, what is staying for us to go on with the political side? Obviously the vote was not an encouraging sign … If this process fails and gets to the point we declare dead the Minsk process, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to start again with a third or fourth exercise of dialogue.” theguardian/world/2014/nov/03/ukraine-rebel-elections-illegal-eu-mogherini?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 07:56:29 +0000
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