The head of the parliamentary Assembly (PA) of the OSCE Ilkka Kanerva said that the Russian Federation tries to prevent cooperation of Ukraine with the European Union.

Kanerva is on a visit in Kiev, on Wednesday, He met with the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Groisman.

in the past year, Ukraine and the European Parliament ratified the Association agreement of the EU, part of which is the provision on free trade area. Russia is concerned with the introduction from 1 January 2016 in the provisions of the FTA and fears of an influx of duty free items from the EU through Ukraine. Kiev and the EU try to come to a compromise with the Russian side.

"One of the tasks of Russia is the development of prohibitions to ensure that Ukraine implement European values and continued interaction with the European Union ", - quotes the expression of the head of the OSCE PA, the parliamentary press service. He also called it "evident" that the Russian Federation "is trying to implement Imperial policy, ""return the superpower status" and " is not aware of the language spoken by the European Union ".

Kanerva called "key issue" for the OSCE PA's implementation of the Minsk agreement: ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine, Kiev restoring full surveillance over the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Donbass and reform.

The speaker of Rada and head of the OSCE PA also called for the continuation of the punishment relative to Russia, as long as the Minsk consensus will not be done.

The leaders of the Russian Federation is sure that there was no alternative to the Minsk agreements to resolve the Ukrainian fall, no, but to demand their implementation from the capital of Russia is stupid because Russia is not a party to domestic conflict and is interested in Ukraine overcame political and economic crisis.

at the end of July 2014, the EU and the US said the penalties against entire sectors of Russia's economy due to the deterioration of relations between Russia and the West on the background of the conflict in Ukraine. In response Russia in the last month of the summer of 2014 limited the import of food items from countries that have imposed against her punishment, and declared the policy of import substitution. In the summer of 2015 penalties and retaliatory measures of the Russian Federation were extended for another year.

As noted before, the press Secretary of the President of Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, Russia was never a supporter of sanctions practice in the Russian capital strongly believe that this practice is absurd, inefficient and is a double-edged sword. Sands drew attention that Moscow has not initiated the entering of punishment and will never initiate.

sections: Politics