MADAyuMadyan - Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin telah menuduh EU “memeras ugut” dan “mendesak” Ukraine atas keputusan untuk menggantung persiapan untuk satu perjanjian perdagangan dengan blok itu. Beliau menambah bahawa keputusan Ukraine akan menjadi jelas dalam beberapa hari YANG akan datang.
“Apabila kita mendengar (saya hanya mendapat tahu semalam) bahawa Ukraine telah digantung - tidak dibatalkan tetapi digantung - rundingan dengan EU dan mahu mengkaji segala-galanya, kita mendengar ancaman dari EU ke Ukraine sehingga ke tahap menga-dakan bantahan besar-besaran. Ini adalah tekanan dan ugutan, “kata Putin pada sidang akhbar bersama dengan Perdana Menteri Turki Recep Tayyip Erdogan di St Petersburg.
Putin mengulangi kesediaan Rusia untuk mengadakan rundingan 3 hala dengan Kesatuan Eropah dan Ukraine pada perdagangan dan ekonomi.
“Kami bersedia untuk mengambil bahagian dalam rundingan. Untuk tahap tertentu, ini adalah satu ujian betapa seriusnya adalah niat EU,” kata Putin.
Integrasi Ukraine dengan EU bukan isu politik, tetapi sesuatu yang ekonomi, tambahnya Putin.
Pada satu ketika dalam sidang akhbar itu, Putin diringankan mood dengan jenaka - pada perbelanjaan Amerika.
Seorang wartawan Rusia membesarkan persoalan panggilan telefon antara Presiden Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych dan rakan sejawatannya dari Lithuania beliau, Dalia Grybauskaite. Pembantu Grybauskaite itu, Jovita Neliupšienė, mendakwa bahawa Moscow telah memberi amaran di Kiev keluar perjanjian EU, kata wartawan tersebut.
Putin berkata beliau tidak mempunyai maklumat tentang apa yang dikatakan dalam panggilan, tetapi menambah, tersenyum, bahawa mungkin soalan perlu ditanya dan bukannya untuk Amerika Syarikat.
“Saya tidak tahu apa yang presiden Ukraine dan Presiden Lithuania telah bercakap tentangnya. Mungkin kita boleh bertanya kepada rakan-rakan kami Amerika dan mereka boleh memberitahu kita. Tetapi mereka tidak berkata apa-apa kepada kami lagi, “kata Putin, nampaknya merujuk kepada skandal terbaru dengan program Agensi Kesela-matan pengawasan Kebangsaan Amerika Syarikat dan menoreh telefon pemimpin EU.
Kerajaan Ukraine menandatangani darjah (degree) Khamis menggantung persiapan untuk perjanjian persatuan antara Ukraine dan EU. Penggubal undang-undang berkata, keputusan itu diambil selepas Kiev dianggap kesan persatuan mengenai hubungan perdagangan dengan Moscow.
Rusia menyambut keinginan Kiev untuk menyalakan semula hubungan dengan Moscow, dan Putin berkata (said) bahawa dia tidak sepenuhnya terhadap persatuan Ukraine dengan EU. Presiden Ukraine bagaimanapun berkata negaranya akan meneruskan usaha ke arah integrasi Eropah, walaupun “bermasalah.”
Putin berkata Jumaat bahawa selepas keputusan Ukraine, kedua-dua negara kini mempunyai perjanjian ZON perdagangan bebas.
“Ia bermakna bahawa dalam kumpulan produk yang banyak, sangat sensitif kepada kedua-dua negara, kita mempunyai eksport sifar dan tarif import. Tahap perlindungan adat wilayah kita dalam hubungan dengan rakan-rakan EU adalah sangat berbeza. Kami telah mencapai status ini sebagai hasil rundingan dalam rangka kerja Pertubuhan Perdagangan SeDUNIA, yang telah dijalankan sejak 17 tahun yang lalu.”
Presiden Vladimir Putin semasa mesyuarat dengan Perdana Menteri Turki Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (RIA Novosti/Aleksey Nikolskyi - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
Putin: EU blackmailing Ukraine over halt in trade deal
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the EU of "blackmailing" and “pressuring” Ukraine over its decision to suspend preparations for a trade pact with the bloc. He added that Ukraine’s decision will be clear in the next few days.
"When we heard (I just found out yesterday) that Ukraine has suspended – not canceled but suspended – negotiations with the EU and wants to review everything, we heard a threat from the EU to Ukraine up to the point of holding mass protests. This is pressure and blackmail," Putin said at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg.
Putin reiterated Russia's readiness to hold three-way talks with the EU and Ukraine on trade and the economy.
"We are ready to participate in the negotiations. To a certain extent, this is a test of how serious the EU’s intentions are,” Putin said.
Ukraine’s integration with the EU is not a political issue, but an economic one, Putin added.
At one point in the press conference, Putin lightened the mood with a joke – at America’s expense.
A Russian journalist brought up the question of a phone call between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his Lithuanian counterpart, Dalia Grybauskaite. Grybauskaite’s aide, Jovita Neliupšienė, claimed that Moscow had warned Kiev off the EU deal, the journalist said.
Putin replied he had no information about what was said in the call, but added, smiling, that maybe the question should be asked instead to the United States.
“I do not know what the president of Ukraine and the president of Lithuania were talking about. Maybe we can ask our American friends and they can tell us. But they haven’t said anything to us yet," Putin said, apparently referring to the latest scandal with the US National Security Agency’s surveillance program and their tapping of EU leaders’ phones.
Ukraine’s government signed a degree Thursday suspending preparations for the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Lawmakers said that the decision was taken after Kiev considered the effects of the association on its trade relations with Moscow.
Russia welcomed Kiev’s desire to rekindle ties with Moscow, and Putin said that he wasn't completely against Ukraine's association with the EU. The Ukrainian president however said that his country would continue its efforts towards European integration, despite the “difficulties.”
Putin said Friday that after Ukraine’s decision, the two countries now have a free trade zone agreement.
“It means that in many product groups, very sensitive to both countries, we have zero export and import tariffs. The level of customs protection of our territory in relations with EU partners is very different. We have achieved this status as a result of negotiations within the framework of the World Trade Organization, which were carried out over the past 17 years.”
5 reasons Ukraine stepped away from the EU
5 reasons Ukraine stepped away from the EU
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