Putin hails Ukraine peace process but says problems still remain
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DESPITE difficulties, the peace process in eastern Ukraine is progressing, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday.
Merkel reaffirmed her support for the peace efforts and repeated her calls to Putin to use his influence with pro-Russian rebels battling Kiev government forces to end a conflict in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since April last year.
“There is every reason to believe the Minsk process is moving forward, though with problems,” Putin told a joint news conference with Merkel, referring to a peace deal signed in the Belarussian capital in February.
“With all the problems in east Ukraine, it has nevertheless become quieter,” he said, adding that direct dialogue between the Kiev government and the rebels was crucial for peace.
Relations between Russia and Germany, which have multi-billion-dollar trade and energy links, have soured over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean region and its support for the rebels. Berlin has strongly backed Western economic sanctions subsequently slapped on Russia.
“But still, the lesson of history is that we have to try everything to solve conflicts — as difficult as they might seem — peacefully and in dialogue and that means diplomatically,” Merkel said.
The German chancellor was visiting Russia for events to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, although she stayed away from a military parade on Red Square on Saturday.
Before their talks yesterday, Putin and Merkel took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the walls of the Kremlin, in an apparent compromise gesture after skipping the main event.
Russia staged a huge parade to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany but most Western countries boycotted the festivities because of Russia’s support for the rebels in Ukraine.
Putin shrugged off the Western snub and instead played up ties with Asia, Latin America and Africa.
“Everyone we wanted to see was here,” he said in televised remarks on Saturday evening.
Just before meeting Merkel, Putin hosted 91-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who praised him for standing up to Washington and noted that their two countries had been slapped with sanctions.
“That is the reason why we should remain together,” Mugabe said.
But Putin also signalled his willingness to mend ties with Europe when he hosted Czech President Milos Zeman, one of the few European leaders to fly to Moscow for the festivities.
“It was not us who initiated the chill in relations with Europe but I hope that thanks to politicians like you we will manage not only to revive them completely but to also move forward,” Putin told the Czech president on Saturday.
For his part, the Czech leader said he was confident that “normal ties will replace the chill.”
Like Putin, many Russians shrugged off the Western no-show as they celebrated Victory Day well into the night, singing war-era songs and feting veterans.
A whopping 500,000 people marched through central Moscow with portraits of their relatives who had fought in the war, in the biggest march of Putin’s 15-year rule.
The 62-year-old president wowed Russians by unexpectedly joining the mammoth procession on Red Square, a portrait of his veteran father Vladimir in his hand.
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