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MOSCOW/BAGHDAD. — Russia said yesterday it was sending a representative to Kiev at the request of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to act as a mediator in talks with the opposition.
Yanukovych called Russian President Vladimir Putin and “proposed that the Russian leader send to Kiev a Russian representative to participate as a mediator in the talks with the opposition,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
“Putin has decided to charge the human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin with this mission,” he said.
Lukin advises Putin on human rights and has criticised some court decisions, such as the jailing of Pussy Riot members.
Peskov said that Lukin, a former ambassador to the United States and opposition politician, had “very rich diplomatic experience” and “commanded authority among human rights campaigners.”
Lukin had been due to stand down this month after 10 years in the position.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukrainian “extremists and hard-liners” of seeking to spark a civil war, as protesters stormed police barricades in Kiev after a truce broke down.
Moscow supports negotiations between Ukranian authorities and the opposition, so they can try to overcome “this crisis and together fight extremists and hard-liners who are trying to provoke a civil war,” Lavrov said at news conference in Baghdad. — AFP.
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