Russia To U.S.: ‘We Are Getting Closer In Our Positions’

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov says, “We have absolutely no intention of, or interest in, crossing Ukraine’s borders. We are getting closer in our positions.” In talks with Secretary of State John Kerry Lavrov will seek to assert Russian influence in Ukraine, but each region would control its own culture, economy, taxes, language and education.

The Russian proposal to radically alter the way Ukraine is governed and administered is certain to arouse strong opposition in Kiev, where it will be viewed by critics of Moscow’s intervention in Crimea as a roundabout way of breaking up or partitioning the country.

In an apparent bid to assuage concerns in Kiev and western capitals about Russian intentions, Lavrov said there were no plans to invade eastern Ukraine.

Latest US intelligence estimates based on satellite data indicate that Russia has amassed 40,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, including a wide range of special units, elite forces and equipment.

“We have absolutely no intention of, or interest in, crossing Ukraine’s borders,” Lavrov said. “We [Russia and the west] are getting closer in our positions.”

He said Moscow’s terms for defusing the crisis, the worst between the west and Russia since the end of the cold war, also included a pledge by Kiev’s government that Ukraine would not seek to join Nato.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.