WEST IS BEHIND MANY DEVELOPMENTS IN UKRAINE - PRIMAKOV
THE HAGUE, December 1, (RIA Novosti's Andrei Poskakukhin) - Yevgeny Primakov, chairman of Russia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, believes that the West is behind many developments in Ukraine. In a RIA Novosti interview, Primakov described as "thoughtless" the position of those who dismiss the opinion concerning the presidential poll prevailing in Ukraine's eastern part. "The part of Ukraine which accounts for more than 79% of GDP is totally disregarded in their conclusions by those who claim to be able to resolve things in a fair way," he thinks. "It seems to me that this is a rash position, which, unfortunately, is backed by the West," Primakov said. In his opinion, those who stick to this point of view fail to understand that such a stand may trigger "not only a split of Ukraine, but also have a negative impact on Russia". "At the same time, differences between Russia and the West are intensifying. Who needs it all?" he added. Primakov also pointed out that he would not draw any parallels between the events of the 1990s in Yugoslavia and current developments in Ukraine. In his view, Yugoslavia collapsed mainly because in 1990 elections the Communist League of Yugoslavia suffered a setback in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia. "These four republics were poised to withdraw from Yugoslavia under the flags of other parties," Primakov indicated. "The Communist League retained its positions in Serbia and Montenegro. This, he believes, was the reason for an "ideological approach" to Slobodan Milosevic. Another distinctive feature of the Yugoslav events, Primakov believes, was that Yugoslavia was split as a state, which was not set up around one people. "The processes going on in Ukraine are entirely different," he stressed. Primakov on Tuesday appeared as a witness for defence at an International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia trial of Slobodan Milosevic. http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=5154960&startrow=1&date=2 004-12-01&do_alert=0 Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
