Russia uses poll results to push talk

Pro-Russian gunmen and activists react while listening to a speaker as they declare independence for the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine on Monday, May 12, 2014. Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine declared independence Monday for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions following their contentious referendum ballot. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Pro-Russian gunmen and activists react while listening to a speaker as they declare independence for the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine on Monday, May 12, 2014. Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine declared independence Monday for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions following their contentious referendum ballot. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

MOSCOW -- The Russian government Monday stopped short of outright recognition of the contentious referendums carried out by separatists in two Russian-speaking provinces of southeastern Ukraine, instead using the results to intensify pressure for negotiated autonomy for those provinces.

The separatists said the voting Sunday showed overwhelming support for autonomy, and in one of the provinces, Donetsk, separatist leaders were quoted by the Russian news media as saying they wanted their province to become part of Russia.

But authorities in Moscow avoided any suggestion that they would use the results in the same way as the Crimean Peninsula referendum in March. Within 48 hours of the Crimea vote, President Vladimir Putin gave a speech from the Kremlin declaring that Russia would annex the region, which was once part of Russia.

This time, the Kremlin issued a statement saying only that it "respects the will of the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions" and that the outcome should be reached through dialogue between representatives of those in eastern Ukraine and of the national government in Kiev, according to a translation provided by the Interfax news agency.

The Russian government did not say that it recognized the results of the voting, which authorities in Kiev and their Western supporters declared illegal from the start.

Russia stated its position as the European Union intensified efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine and allow a presidential election scheduled for May 25 to proceed, with Russian agreement.

Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, the current chairman of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, met with Putin last week and spoke with him again by phone Monday about a road map for settling the crisis. Burkhalter also shared his plan with EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.

The plan laid out by Burkhalter calls on all sides to refrain from violence and urges immediate amnesty, talks on decentralization and the status of the Russian language. That's a key complaint of the insurgents who have seized power in eastern regions and clashed with government troops and police.

"We have reached a pivotal moment in this crisis, both for Ukraine and for Europe," Burkhalter said at the meeting, according to a text provided by the group. "The window of opportunity is likely to be short."

Burkhalter has been discussing with European countries, including Russia, how mediation might work.

"We have seen in Moscow that there is openness for a dialogue," Burkhalter said. He added that Ukraine has accepted a proposal to nominate Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger of Germany as a co-moderator in the talks.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is the conduit because it includes both the EU's member states and those of the former Soviet Union, including Russia and Ukraine.

But it's up to the Ukrainian government to take the next step.

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk pledged to hold a dialogue with Ukraine's east, but he gave no specifics and stopped short of addressing Sunday's referendum and the declarations of independence in Donetsk and Luhansk.

"We would like to launch the broad national dialogue with the east, center, the west and all of Ukraine," Yatsenyuk said at a news conference in Brussels, adding that the agenda for talks should include changes to the constitution that would give more power to the regions.

According to early results from eastern Ukraine, 89 percent of voters in the Donetsk region and 97.5 percent in neighboring Luhansk voted for greater autonomy. Opponents of autonomy and separatism appeared to stay away from the polls.

The insurgents said turnout Sunday topped 70 percent, but with no international election monitors around, the claim was impossible to confirm.

Sunday's balloting was mostly peaceful although armed men stopped the voting and took control of the town hall in Krasnoarmeisk, then opened fire on the crowd outside. They identified themselves as Ukrainian national guards, but the country's Interior Ministry said they were not. Two deaths were reported.

Gov. Valery Bolotov said Monday at a rally in the city of Luhansk that voters "have chosen that path that has enabled the formation of an independent state -- the Luhansk People's Republic."

Bolotov stopped short of declaring the region's desire to join Russia, but Donetsk officials expressed interest in requesting annexation.

"We, the people of the Donetsk People's Republic, based on the results of the May 11, 2014, referendum, declare that henceforth the Donetsk People's Republic will be deemed a sovereign state," Denis Pushilin, co-chairman of the insurgent government, said to applause Monday.

"The people of Donetsk have always been part of the Russian world, regardless of ethnic affiliation. For us, the history of Russia is our history," he said.

But the Kremlin statement repeated the position Putin outlined in a speech Wednesday, which called for a negotiated settlement.

"In the interests of establishing such a dialogue, all mediation efforts will be welcome, including by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe," the Kremlin statement said.

In Kiev, Ukraine's interim President Oleksandr Turchynov dismissed the voting in the east as an illegal sham. He issued a statement calling the ballots a "propaganda farce" that carries "no legal consequences except the criminal responsibility" of the organizers.

But Turchynov repeated that he was ready to "continue dialogue with those in the east of Ukraine, who have no blood on their hands and who are ready to defend their goals in a legitimate way," Agence France-Press reported.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States does not recognize the results of the vote and that it is focused on making sure Ukraine's presidential election takes place as planned.

At a Moscow news conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the time was over for additional talks among Russia, the United States, the EU and Kiev about how to emerge from the crisis. A deal needs to be negotiated now by the Ukrainians, Lavrov said.

He accused Washington and Kiev of stonewalling the plan from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and warned that efforts to defuse the crisis wouldn't succeed without "engaging opponents of the regime in a direct dialogue."

The Foreign Ministry criticized the EU for its "inarticulate reaction" to the plan and said that by refusing to recognize the referendums, the EU "undermines its credibility as a partner" in resolving the crisis.

Western countries have backed the Kiev authorities in rejecting the outcome of the separatists' referendums, which could offer Moscow a pretext to fulfill its pledge to protect Ukraine's Russian speakers.

While Russia seems to have thrown its weight behind negotiations rather than intervention, given the growing level of violence in the region, it remains possible that bloodshed will derail a negotiated compromise.

Kiev has said it would not negotiate with the "terrorists" who seized buildings using arms and organized the referendum, and that it would only start such discussions if the forces relinquished the buildings. The separatists said they would not talk to members of the government in Kiev, whom they describe as "fascists" and "neo-Nazis," until all the armed forces dispatched in the east are withdrawn.

The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of organizing the secessionist movement in the east, which Moscow denies. Russia has accused the Kiev regime of supporting Right Sector, an anti-Russian group whose ideology is drawn partly from a nationalist party that collaborated briefly with the Nazis against the Soviet army during World War II.

With the referendum out of the way, attention is now focused on presidential elections this month. Although Russia was initially opposed adamantly, Putin softened his stance Wednesday.

But a nationwide election is in doubt after Luhansk spokesman Vasily Nikitin said Monday that the region will not take part.

The interim government in Kiev had been hoping the presidential vote would unify the country behind a new, democratically chosen leadership. Ukraine's crisis could grow even worse if regions start rejecting the presidential election. Dozens of people have been reported killed since Ukrainian forces began trying to retake some eastern cities.

In Brussels, where the 28-nation EU previously has announced asset freezes intended to show its disapproval of Russia's role in the Ukrainian crisis, foreign ministers planned to announce a modest tightening of the sanctions, slightly widening the scope of asset freezes to include some companies as well as individuals.

The EU's foreign ministers are adding 13 people and two firms to their visa ban and asset freeze list, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the measure had yet to be announced.

But analysts said there would most likely be no move toward more serious sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy.

Information for this article was contributed by Neil MacFarquhar, Andrew E. Kramer, Alan Cowell, Alison Smale, Noah Sneider, Andrew Higgins and James Kanter of The New York Times; and by Peter Leonard, Vladimir Isachenkov, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Mark Rachkevych, Raf Casert, Angela Charlton and Manu Brabo of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/13/2014