18.10.2016 | Source: Pravda.Ru
AP photo | President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande agreed to hold a meeting in Berlin on October 19.
Official spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed Vladimir Putin's participation in the meeting. "Tomorrow, the president is going to Berlin for one-evening work trip, during which he will conduct talks with Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko," Peskov said, RIA Novosti reports.
Earlier, representative of Germany Steffen Seibert confirmed that the Norman summit would take place in Berlin on October 19, where Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, Petro Poroshenko and Vlaimir Putin will discuss the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine.
"The meeting would be very useful, but considering the position of Ukraine that demands Russia should agree on its own interpretation of the Minsk Accords, I see no reason for productive results. Putin said earlier during "Russia Calling" forum that Ukraine should start running political reforms if the country wanted to achieve progress. Yet, we do not see that Kiev is willing to do so," Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute of Humanitarian and Political Studies told Pravda.Ru.
According to the expert, the West has never solved any of Ukraine's problems. "France and Germany say that they advocate everything good and denounce everything bad. For the USA, Ukraine is a tool to restrain Russia.
According to our expert, the Minks Accords will be exhausted when any of the parties participating in them will pull out from the agreements. "Putin and Poroshenko will come, but it will be up to Ukraine to decide whether the country is ready to discuss its own inaction. Ukraine will most likely stick to its previous position, so I do not think there is any point in the meeting, although it will not bring any harm either," the expert told Pravda.Ru.
The Minsk Accords signed on September 5, 2014 in Minsk, provides for the decentralization of power in Ukraine. The agreements also envisage the passing of adequate laws to provide the right to self-governance to several territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
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Ukraine refuses to recognize $3 bln debt to Russia as sovereign — source
October 18, 18:16 UTC+3
© EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY
KIEV, October 18. /TASS/. Ukraine holds the position that its $3 bln debt to Russia is not a sovereign one, representative of Ukrainian Finance Ministry told TASS on Tuesday.
"Our position, including the one in the court, is that it is not [the sovereign one - TASS]," the source said. Negotiations with Russia in respect of this debt are not planned for the nearest future, the ministry’s representative added.
The basis fornegotiations with Ukraine on its debt to Russia is recognition of it as sovereign and conditions for restructuring are better than commercial, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told journalists earlier on Tuesday.
In December 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich agreed on a $15 bln loan to be extended to Kiev through placing Ukrainian securities. Under the deal, three-billion-US dollar worth of bonds were listed on the Irish Stock Exchange on December 20, 2013 and acquired by Russia using the funds from its National Welfare Fund.
On December 18, 2015 Ukraine’s government imposed a moratorium on debt payment to the Russian Federation because of Russia’s refusal to sign a restructuring agreement on an equal basis with private creditors as Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said. Meanwhile, on December 17, the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recognized the official status of Russia’s loan to Ukraine as sovereign. On December 20, 2015 Ukraine failed to make a payment on its debt to Russia. The Russian Finance Ministry filed a lawsuit against Ukraine to London’s High Court of Justice in February 2016.
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