President Vladimir Putin proposed yesterday that Russia’s upper house of parliament revoke a mandate it gave him to send troops to Ukraine, a symbolic gesture aimed at countering fears of a Russian invasion of the neighbouring country.
The move comes ahead of a European summit on Friday at which western powers had threatened to introduce a fresh round of sanctions against Mr Putin for his lack of action in intervening to halt the rebel attacks in the east of Ukraine.
Mr Putin submitted to the Federation Council a proposal to cancel the resolution, which allowed the president to use military force in Ukraine’s territory, his spokesman said.
Two senior council members said it was expected to comply with Mr Putin’s request today.
Observers in Moscow said that lifting his mandate for an invasion was the clearest political signal yet that Mr Putin is seeking a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine. The move comes after pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine late on Monday agreed to a week-long ceasefire.
Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s new pro-western president, accused the rebels yesterday of already breaking the agreement. “There were eight incidents last night. One soldier died. Seven were injured,” Mr Poroshenko said.
However, he greeted Mr Putin’s action cautiously, calling it “the first practical move by the Russian president after -officially backing Ukraine’s peace plan”.
“Of course, we remain wary because throughout this crisis Putin has acted in ways that have undermined trust,” said a European diplomat in Moscow. “But as the government has sought to provide legalistic justifications for every step they make, we can now be more confident that an invasion is not part of the plan.”
The mandate set to be cancelled allowed Mr Putin to use Russian troops on Ukraine territory “until the normalisation of the political situation in that country”. The Federation Council had adopted it on March 1st at Mr Putin’s request. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014)