Ukraine Objects To CIS Plan To Monitor Russia Election In Crimea
Ukraine has protested to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) over the organization’s plans to send monitors to the Russian State Duma elections in the region of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry on August 18 published a statement saying the CIS “has been formally notified about the Ukrainian stance regarding the Russian intention to spread [the elections] into the temporarily occupied territory” of Crimea and the Crimean city of Sevastopol.
It noted that the elections “will not have any legal consequence” and added that any monitoring of the “farce election will be seen as an unfriendly move.”
The CIS is an organization of some former Soviet republics. Nine of them -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- are full members, while Turkmenistan and Ukraine are associate states.
Georgia withdrew from the CIS after the war against Russia in 2008.
Based on reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti
In today's Daily Vertical, Brian Whitmore asks if Putin is upping the ante in Ukraine...
Here's an item from our news desk. Not directly connected with Ukraine, but pretty pertinent given the recent Russian military buildup around the country:
Moldova Protests Russian Military Exercise In Transdniester
The Moldovan Foreign Ministry has complained to Russian diplomats over a recent military exercise involving Russian troops on the territory of Transdniester, a region of Moldova de facto controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
The ministry issued a statement on August 18 saying that the exercise was illegal, "provocative, and inadmissible." It aimed to "undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Moldova, the statement added.
The ministry repeated Chisinau's demand that Russia withdraw its forces and heavy weaponry from the country and that the peacekeeping operation be handed over to international organizations.
It was the second time that exercises involving separatists and Russian forces have been held in Transdniester this month.
Russia has maintained a force of some 1,000 troops in Moldova since a cease-fire was brokered in 1992 after a brief, bloody conflict between the separatists and the Moldovan state.
Some 1,500 people died in that conflict.
In 1999, Moscow agreed to a complete withdrawal of its forces by 2002, but has failed to implement that agreement despite repeated appeals by the Moldovan government for it to do so.
Based on reporting by AP and Interfax
A tweet from the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Kyiv: