Kremlin has nothing to do with Ukraine Salvation Committee initiative — spokesman

Kremlin has nothing to do with the initiative to create the Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine and Vladimir Oleinik’s election as its head, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

“Kremlin has absolutely nothing to do with this initiative,” Peskov said. “It’s rather new – the press conference [of Ukrainian politician, former deputy Vladimir Oleinik] has just ended and the news has just now appeared,” he said. “Of course, the initiative’s coordination with some authorities here, in Russia, and the more so agreement on Oleinik’s candidature is totally ruled out,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

“As for the issue of supporting or not supporting him, we certainly need to familiarize ourselves in detail with the made statements, study them and analyze the situation,” Peskov said.

According to him, “one thing is certain so far: the situation in Ukraine, in fact, is far from ideal, and it has primarily economic degradation trends with all the ensuing consequences.” “I think this point can hardly be disputed,” said the Kremlin spokesman. “And so far we don’t see any indications that the economic situation is going to improve.” According to Peskov, “The still unresolved conflict in the Donbas region is a serious obstacle to Ukraine’s economic development.”

“Ukrainian authorities, in violation of the Minsk agreements, are still refusing to have direct contacts with Donbass Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics – DPR and LPR] representatives, and we also know very well that the Ukrainian side fails to observe many clauses of the Minsk agreements,” Peskov said. “And, of course, all this cannot but negatively affect the situation in the country,” the Kremlin official said with regret. He said, however, that “certainly, Ukraine is our closest neighbour, and we want to see Ukraine as a stable, predictable and dynamic state.” “But now the situation is far from this,” he added.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told a news conference in Moscow on Monday the Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine has decided to nominate for president former Verkhovna Rada deputy Vladimir Oleinik. “We have decided to nominate Vladimir Oleinik for president. We should demand snap presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. The country badly needs renovation,” Azarov said, adding that the decision to nominate Oleinik was made unanimously.

Oleinik said for his part that “the crisis in Ukraine is political, economic and social.” “The only solution is to hold snap presidential and parliamentary elections.”

Vladimir Oleinik is a Ukrainian politician, famous lawyer, and member of the 5th, 6th and 7th Verkhovna Rada. He was born in Ukraine’s Cherkassy Region in 1957.

In 2006, he was elected to the parliament from Yulia Timoshenko’s Bloc. Since March 2010, he had been member of the Party of Regions and served as deputy chairman of Rada’s committee on industrial and regulatory policy and entrepreneurship.

In December 2014, Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office charged Oleinik was organising illegal voting in the parliament for “16 January laws” – a package of measures toughening penalties for various offenses. He was put on Ukraine’s wanted list.