Kyiv, 7 May, 2014 – “There is no doubt that your elections on May 25th will be held in a very testing circumstances in the face of unacceptable pressure to undermine those elections. It is clear to us that Russian government is trying to orchestrate a conflict in Eastern Ukraine in order to blow the elections”, said William Hague, British Foreign Secretary, MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs at the press-briefing, organized by the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.
Mr. Hague has assured that Britain as part of the International community will provide numerous monitors, technical know-how and other practical support. “I urge people of Ukraine to vote on the elections so that the true voice of Ukrainians is heard loud and clear”.
According to William Hague, US and EU are preparing the third tier of far-reaching economic and financial sanctions for the Russian Federation and they are ready to impose them if Russia continues to create instability in Ukraine. “We are not saying that we will impose them only if there is a military invasion. Nor are we setting a red line, because otherwise Russia will just go up to the red line knowing that they can escape the sanction”. Commenting on the question of close trading connections between England and Russia, Mr. Hague has said: “We have a national interest in a rule-based international order. This is more important to us than economic relations with any one particular country”.
William Hague has encouraged Russian leaders to think about the long-term effect of this crisis: “Europe is now discussing how to reduce energy dependence on Russia. As a consequence of their unaccepted foreign policy, Russia will soon lose its economic and political influence in the world”.
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