On the” Direct line”, the president humiliatingly spoke about a colleague
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine is under external control from the West. In this regard, he is not yet ready to meet with Vladimir Zelensky, because he does not know what to talk about with him. He stated this during the annual direct line.
Putin found a reason not to meet with Zelensky. Photo: president.gov.ua
As Putin said, Ukraine is not included in the list of countries unfriendly to Russia, because ” Ukrainians and Russians are one people.” He even plans to write some analytical article on this topic and hopes that citizens of both countries will get acquainted with it.
In his opinion, the reason for the differences between Moscow and Kiev is the policy of the current leadership of Ukraine. “They are introducing a law to the Rada and declaring the Russian people not indigenous. This is incomprehensible to the mind! This will lead to a reduction in the total number of Russians. This is comparable to the use of weapons of mass destruction, ” the president believes. He stressed that all people who are trying to strengthen relations with Russia are “put in prison and killed on the streets.”
When asked if he was ready to meet with Zelensky, Putin replied that he did not see any sense in this, because key decisions on Ukraine are made in the United States, Berlin and Paris. “What is there to meet with Zelensky if he has given his country under full external control? Nevertheless, I do not refuse meetings of this kind, but we just need to understand what to talk about,” the president concluded.
Zelensky has repeatedly insisted on meeting with his Russian counterpart. In April, he invited him to the demarcation line in the Donbas, noting that the parties need to discuss the security issue, then offered to meet in the Vatican. Putin replied that he always has something to talk about with Zelensky, especially in light of the accumulated problems in bilateral relations. At the same time, during talks with Joe Biden in Geneva, the head of Russia discussed Ukraine only with a “smear”.
Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik, in a conversation with MK, called the thesis about the external management of Kiev exaggerated. According to him, the influence of Western partners on Ukraine is significant and even decisive, but we are still not talking about full-fledged management.
He is sure that it is not worth waiting for a meeting of the two presidents in the near future. “The Russian President justifies the absence of negotiations by saying that the Ukrainian leadership is hostile and incapable of negotiating due to external dependence. He seems to make it clear that he wants to talk about Ukraine with Biden, Macron or Merkel. Thus, Putin does not seek to bring the meeting closer, but also does not dismiss its idea, because otherwise he would have come under international condemnation because of the unwillingness of peace, unconstructivity, and so on,” the expert explained.
According to Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, such a meeting is possible only if Zelensky reaches the level of Putin: “This does not mean that Ukraine should be the same in size, population, number of missiles, and so on. This may be the head of a modest-sized power, but he must bean independent and sovereign leader. For example, Putin meets with Lukashenka, because Lukashenka makes decisions himself. And what is the point of meeting with Zelensky? He is not a Gandhi to talk to him about life and philosophize. If he shows that he can make at least some decisions, then the meeting will make sense. ”