Voice of Russia: US tries to calm Europe as Russian gas shortage looming over Ukraine crisis
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this Saturday that the West is "playing with concepts" when it calls on Russia to start a dialogue with Ukraine’s new authorities. The process of the transition of power in Ukraine has not been completed yet, Lavrov believes. The new Ukrainian "government" came to power by overthrowing the old one with force, thus, Russia cannot recognize it as legitimate, the Russian Foreign Minister insists.
In fact, Russia’s authorities announced their refusal to recognize Ukraine’s new "government" legitimacy immediately after this "government" came to power. The new Ukrainian "rulers", in fact, ousted the former president, Victor Yanukovych, with force and with rough violations of the country’s constitution. They made the parliament vote for some laws advantageous to them nearly at the point of guns. Russia’s authorities cannot qualify this any other way than forcible takeover of power – and Russia can only wonder why quite a few European countries and the US, who are pretending to be democratic, have recognized the new Ukrainian government and already started talks with it. Moreover, when Russia announced its readiness to help Ukrainian citizens who do not support this government of usurpers, the West started to accuse Russia of "planning an aggression against Ukraine".