Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his support for the idea of Ukrainian Opposition Platform - For Life party leader Viktor Medvedchuk to organize an interparliamentary dialogue in the Normandy format for the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine.

"It's a good idea, I will ask the State Duma administration to work on it as well," Putin said. He said he is confident that "the response [of Russian lawmakers] will be exclusively positive."

Medvedchuk put forward the idea at a meeting with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov in St. Petersburg on Friday. Putin joined this conversation.

Medvedchuk said that the parliaments of the Normandy Four member states - Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine - should be involved in the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine.

"A great deal depends on the parliaments," and "this parliamentary resource [can] be used to achieve peace," he said.

"The key issue" of the settlement of the situation in Donbas "is the implementation of the Minsk Agreements," Medvedchuk said. "For our party, the Minsk Agreements have no alternative, their implementation in political terms lies in the adoption of the special laws on elections, on the status, on the amnesty, and amendments to the constitution. All that should be adopted by the parliamentarians," he said.

The interfactional union Interparliamentary Dialogue for Peace was established at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, he said. A preliminary agreement on a meeting with members of the German and French parliaments in the second half of January or early February has already been made, Medvedchuk said.

Medvedchuk's party established interparty contact with United Russia, he said. "I welcome this," the Russian president said.