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.
Russia Stops Short of Recognizing East Ukraine Secession Vote - NYTimes.com
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
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.
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.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany said he would travel to Kiev and then to Paris on Tuesday.
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