UKRAINE: NATO and Russia have together called for a free and fair election in Ukraine after weeks of tension between Western capitals and Moscow over presidential poll results. A joint statement at a NATO meeting in Brussels yesterday urged a free and fair rerun of a second-round presidential ballot to end a crisis in Kiev over fraudulent results last month.
NATO's Secretary-General, Mr Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said: "While many in the media have attempted to portray these events as a return to Cold War-era confrontation between East and West, I am confident that we can prove them wrong." The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Sergei Lavrov, was also insistent there was no row but reiterated Moscow's concern that Ukraine should not become an exclusive disciple of the West.
"In geo-political terms Ukraine simply cannot be only western or only eastern. It is a European country which lies both on the borders of EU and NATO and on Russia's borders," he said.