Navalny Calls Minsk Accords A Priority If Elected President
By RFE/RL
Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has followed his declaration of intent to run in Russia’s next presidential election by saying one of his top priorities if elected would be to implement the Minsk accords aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine.
Speaking to Current Time TV, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL and VOA, on December 15, Navalny said that "the first measure that we must carry out is implementation of the Minsk accords."
Those accords -- agreed among Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany in the Belarusian capital in February 2015 -- called for elections, a return of border control, and other measures to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 9,700 people as Kyiv battles Russia-backed separatists.
"Putin himself talks about this endlessly but does practically nothing about it," Navalny said. "The Minsk accords were signed by Russia, they need to be fulfilled, and that would be the first step to resolving the situation with Ukraine."
The United States, European Union, and allies responded to Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine with economic sanctions and other punitive measures.
The Minsk accords call for pulling out all foreign armed groups from the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, withdrawing heavy weaponry, returning control of Ukraine's border to Kyiv, and ensuring local elections in parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are held by Russian-backed separatists.
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