Russian lawmakers to discuss draft text on Ukraine

Russia's Lower House of parliament Duma plans to discuss and adopt a draft statement on the situation in Ukraine. The document is up for discussion by the house committee for the CIS, Eurasian integration and relations with fellow-countrymen abroad, (Itar-Tass) news agency reports Tuesday. Committee chairman Leonid Slutsky said the text of the statement includes proposals from all the political forces represented in the Duma. "All the Duma factions support the text," he said. The draft says that the MPs "cannot watch the developments unfolding in Ukraine indifferently". "Unauthorized meetings, the siege of agencies of state power, seizures of administrative buildings, rampages, and destruction of the monuments of history lead up to a destabilization in the country and are fraught with ominous economic and political consequences for the people of Ukraine," the Russian lawmakers warn. "Overt interference of foreign officials in the affairs of the sovereign Ukraine that stands at variance with any international norms causes particular concern," the statement says. "Some Western politicians who address oppositionist meetings make explicit calls for revolting against the decisions passed by the legitimately elected authorities of the country," the MPs say. "They thus make a destructive contribution to the deterioration of the political situation." The geopolitical choice that Ukraine is going to make lies fully within the domain the internal sovereign rights of its people, the Russian MPs say and urge Western politicians "to stop wielding external pressures on the country's policy," the Itar-Tass report said.