Klimkin called for stopping the Minsk process until the “Putin passportization” is canceled
Ukraine must abandon the Minsk agreements and figure out how to deprive its former citizens in Crimea and Donbass of Russian citizenship if the territories are returned.
Otherwise, with several million holders of Russian passports, the country will never become a member of the EU and NATO.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin stated this on the First Western TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
At the same time, Petro Poroshenko’s comrade-in-arms believes that it is impossible to negotiate in Minsk until the President of the Russian Federation cancels his decrees on Russian passporting in the “independence”.
“Listen, but issuing Russian passports cancels the logic of the Minsk agreements? Any new deal for me must include Putin saying, “I am rescinding my decree on issuing passports.” So what, he will continue to issue them?
I believe that we must clearly agitate and tell our partners that either we will take measures against those who receive Russian passports, or Putin will cancel this.
If we don’t say anything, if we hold some secret meetings, I’m not against secret meetings, there should be confidentiality. But society must understand - is it just that you receive a Russian passport, but that this is not a threat to us?
Tell me, how will we join the EU and NATO, independent, when we have a million Russian citizens on our territory? Who will take us then? How will we control them, how will we explain this in Brussels?
Therefore, this is a question not only of national security - of course, but also of our future. And if we don’t say this, we crawl under the table and say, okay, we have some secret lists, let’s accept it... Even Russia says that it has already issued many more passports. These are fundamental things,” Klimkin worries.
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