10:33 15.12.2014

Medvedev: Kyiv's plans to wall off Russia is 'political theater'

2 min read
Medvedev: Kyiv's plans to wall off Russia is 'political theater'

Kyiv's declaration of intent to build "a wall" between Ukraine and Russia is "political theater," as it is impossible to reduce bilateral relations to zero, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

"The current sentiments of a part of Ukrainian elites are manifested by the plans to build 'walls' of differing configurations between Kyiv and Moscow. They [the walls] may be high or low, with electric current or with barbed fire, with a ditch or with a trench. These political theater props are taken to the real economy," Medvedev wrote in his opinion piece, "Russia and Ukraine: Living by New Rules," published by Nezavisimaya Gazeta on Monday.

"We have been hearing about the alleged Ukrainian readiness to stop any trade and economic contacts with Russia: to reduce them to minimum or even to zero. Zero gas supply, minimal supply of oil, machines and other hardware from behind the 'wall,' and zero supply of engines and minimal supply of pipes, metal and construction materials to those behind the 'wall,'" the Russian premier continued.

The Ukrainian administration supported by the U.S. has been insistently promoting a totally non-market project of the Odesa-Brody pipeline for cutting Russian oil transit across the Ukrainian territory, Medvedev said.

"A great effort has been made to find alternatives in natural gas supply. True, this helps develop imagination but has nothing to do with the reality," the prime minister indicated.

"I very much doubt the ability of Kyiv strategists to reduce to zero trade and economic relations between our countries both on paper and in real life, although they can suffer serious or even severe damage and both countries have already seen it happening," Medvedev wrote.

"Russia will regret these losses but will get over them economically," the Russian premier underscored.

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