“...Putin’s assertions of “no control over separatists” have become even more unbelievable as pro-Russian separatists openly flaunt their Russian citizenship, contract fighting in Chechnya (with possible war crimes), their Russian military-intelligence backgrounds...”
The above line from the Forbes article says it all.
Here is the exchange according to the Forbes article, which doesn’t look like Putin Dodged the question to me....
MSNBC:....“Can I ask you, just to put this on the record for your audience here:....” Do you accept the legitimacy of the election that is going to take place on Sunday in Ukraine?”
Putin:.....”You know, we realize that people in Ukraine want their country to get this drawn-out crisis over and done with, and, ...”without any doubt, we will respect the choice of the Ukrainian people.”..... Of course, we will keep track of the events.”
((So I looked to the Manuscript from Putin’s Meeting “with the Heads of the International News Agencies”.....on Friday May 24th...two days before the election. This was from the Question and Answer period where these News Heads asked whatever they determined ......this is the exchange regarding the election in Ukraine:))
FLORENCE BIEDERMANN : ....Will you consider the elected president in Ukraine legitimate?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Your second question is about recognition or non-recognition of the election in Ukraine. I replied in detail to this question yesterday. One of your colleagues tired me out trying to approach this issue from different angles. I’ve already answered this question and can repeat what I said.
I believe it would have been more logical to fulfil the agreements – at least in narrow format – that were reached by President Yanukovych and the opposition on February 21 of this year. There was no point in calling into doubt from the very start even some aspects of the legitimacy of the future Ukrainian authorities on the grounds that a presidential election cannot be held with the legally operating Ukrainian President. This is an obvious fact – it’s enough to open the Ukrainian Constitution to see what is written there.
In this context it would have been more logical and, in my view, more serious to first hold a referendum, then adopt a constitution and then hold elections based on the new fundamental law. However, the current authorities in Kiev and those people who control the power have decided to follow a different course. They want to stage the election first and then deal with constitutional amendments. It is unclear for the time being what amendments they have in mind – this is always an issue of debate and certain agreements in society.
You know what I think? The people who are controlling the power in Kiev and the main presidential candidates are still different people. Maybe those who are in charge today are not interested in the new president being completely legitimate. This may be the case. After all, they are engaged in a serious internal political struggle. In the end it’s up to Ukraine, its domestic business. I can just repeat what I said yesterday: we’ll respect any choice made by the Ukrainian people.
FLORENCE BIEDERMANN: As far as I understand, President Yanukovych will remain the legitimate President, even after the election. I’m talking about legitimacy.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: You know, we can all read. Let’s open the constitution and read it. We are grown-up people, we can read. Take the Ukrainian constitution and read it. It says that there are four legitimate reasons when an incumbent president has to go. They are: death, a serious health condition, impeachment – and there was no constitution-based impeachment – and resignation, when the president hands in his resignation to the Parliament. So we either stick to the constitution or dismiss it.
My point is they should have dealt with this issue first. But the current Kiev authorities had a different plan. All right. In any case, we are interested in stabilising the situation. What are they saying now? They are going to adopt a new constitution. If so, a newly elected president might still be a temporary figure or, on the contrary, he or she will take over all the power. Beyond doubt, both scenarios will only aggravate the political struggle in the country.
As I said, we will by all means respect the choice of the Ukrainian people and will cooperate with the authorities that will come to power as a result of the election.