Anton Bykov: Brain assault on the search for compromises

Anton Bykov

Last Friday, a closed meeting between the assistant to the President of Russia Vladislav Surkov and the deputy US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, at which the problems of the implementation of the Minsk agreements, was held at the State Residence of the Pionersk of the Kaliningrad Region. According to the results of six -hour negotiations, the parties recognized that the meeting was productive and thorough. Meanwhile, Washington made it clear that he sees Moscow’s desire to diplomatic solving the problem and is ready to lift sanctions this year after the fulfillment of obligations under the agreements reached in Minsk.

“As soon as the Minsk agreements are implemented, namely elections in the Donbass were held, hostilities were terminated and the eastern border of Ukraine is restored, the sanctions will be canceled. It seems that Russia is tuned to the diplomatic solution to the issue today. We can only welcome this and we hope that this will be possible to achieve this this year, ” said Daniel Frid, coordinator of the US State Department, speaking at the American University in Washington.

The department believes that currently economic impact measures are becoming more and more effective compared to the use of military force. According to Frida, the United States did not impose sanctions on Russia, on the contrary, they were developed in close connection with the countries of the "Big Eight" and the European Union to change the line of behavior of Moscow.

The implementation of the Minsk agreements is the main condition for the lifting of a part of Western sanctions against Russia, but the parties consider the sequence of 13 points of the complex in different ways. The document was agreed in February 2015, but not a single clause of agreements was fully executed. In order to somehow refresh the search for the resolution of contradictions between the parties, a meeting was organized in the new format of the assistant to the President of Russia Vladislav Surkov, who oversees the policy in the Ukrainian direction, and the deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.

According to Kommersant , the presidents of Russia and the USA Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama agreed on the negotiations of Surkov and Nuland during a telephone conversation. The meeting took place in Kaliningrad, since Niland was in the Lithuanian tracae for the past few days, where Euro -Atlantic security problems were discussed. Surkov cannot get to Lithuania, since the EU blacklisted in the blacklist.

The parties do not disclose the details of the meeting. According to the assistant to the Russian president, a “brain storm on the search for compromises” took place, as a result of which the negotiations turned out to be productive and circumstances. Surkov added that sentences were put forward on a number of “sensitive questions”, which could be included in the agenda of the next meeting of the contact group in the “Norman format”. Including it was a constitutional reform in Ukraine, security issues and elections. Sources of Kommersant say that one of the key topics was the sequence of various points of the Minsk agreements.

In Washington, it is believed that the political process of resolving the conflict around Ukraine can only begin after a complete ceasefire. Then it will be possible to proceed to the consideration of other clauses of agreements, including elections in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, the removal of military equipment, and the establishment of Ukraine control over the eastern borders.

A similar algorithm adheres to Kyiv, but President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko insists on the need for new temporary guidelines and a clear sequence of execution of agreements. Ukrainian sources of Kommersant confirmed that Kyiv will begin to fulfill the political part of the Minsk agreements only after, how the first points of the complex will be implemented - the ceasefire and the withdrawal of weapons.

Moscow agrees with the importance of the execution of the first points of the Minsk agreements. On January 14, at the first meeting of the contact group, Boris Gryzlov proposed to immediately introduce the “day of silence” in the conflict zone. However, the Moscow’s vision of the sequence of political provisions is sharply different: first, the adoption of the Law on local elections agreed with the leaders of the separatists, and then, again, the consistent constitutional reform, which will record the special status of Donbass.

The next meeting of the contact group is scheduled for January 20. On the same day in Zurich, negotiations between the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who, in addition to Syria, will also discuss the conflict around Ukraine.

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