PRESS RELEASE

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U.S. Ukraine Envoy Volker Issues New Threats Against Russia; Russian Senator Pushkov Responds

Aug. 28, 2017 (EIRNS)—U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker took the occasion of an interview with London’s Financial Times to issue new threats against Russia, warning that U.S.-Russian relations will be "crippled," unless Russia decides to resolve the Ukrainian situation to Washington’s satisfaction. He appears to miss the point that relations are already quite crippled, as Russian officials frequently point out.

Volker’s message is, of course, that the Ukraine crisis is entirely Russia’s fault, adding the threat that "very senior levels" of the Trump administration are "seriously considering" whether to send lethal weapons to Ukraine. These statements follow Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s visit to Kiev last week, in which he said he favored arming Ukraine.

"Russia is going to have to make some fundamental decisions" on "whether to comply with the Minsk accords," Volker warned, blaming Russia for lack of progress in implementing that agreement. In fact, he added, Russia’s involvement in Ukraine "isn’t working out very well for them ... and frankly, the situation is going to get worse over time, not better." Then, reflecting the mindset of those stuck in the muck of the old paradigm, Volker warned that unless Russia bends to Western demands, it "is going to be frozen out of diplomatic relationships, of economic relationships, because of this."

Russian Senator Aleksey Pushkov, head of the Committee for Information Policy of the upper house of the Russian Parliament, the Federation Council, responded sharply to Volker, RT reported today.

"Volker’s attempt to frighten us are in vain. Russia will never be ousted from the system of diplomatic and economic relations. Obama’s experience has shown that the U.S. lacks the power to do this,"

Pushkov tweeted.