WASHINGTON: Russia has set four conditions for Ukraine if it wants to get financial help from Moscow including recognizing Crimea’s independence, reforming the country’s constitution, regulating the crisis in its eastern regions and guaranteeing the rights of Russian speakers.
“If Ukraine fulfils these four conditions, then Russia will be able to propose further steps on additional help both on financial and gas issues,” RT quoted Russia’s finance minister Anton Siluanov as saying after meeting with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schauble in Washington.
The Russian finance minister said that deescalating tensions in eastern Ukraine should be peaceful, based on Ukraine’s legislation, “without discrimination against Russian-speaking population, without victims and bloodshed.”
Siluanov further said that it is necessary for Ukraine to conduct constitutional reform, hold legitimate presidential elections and “form a government with which one may negotiate.”