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29 March 2024

Putin tells Merkel of pullback from Ukraine border

A woman walks past a trainload of Ukrainian tanks which are set to leave Crimean peninsula near the Crimean capital Simferopol on March 31. (AFP)

Published
By Reuter

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Germany's Angela Merkel in a phone call on Monday that he had ordered a partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the eastern Ukrainian border, the German chancellor's spokesman said.

"The Russian president informed the chancellor about the partial withdrawal of Russian troops he ordered from the eastern border of Ukraine," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

"On top of that the two discussed further possible steps to stabilise the situation in Ukraine and Transdniestria," he said.

Putin and Merkel discussed how Moscow and the West can help "restore stability" in Ukraine during a telephone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.

Putin told Merkel that Ukraine must enact constitutional reforms to ensure that the interests of all its regions are respected, and called for measures to end what he called a "blockade" of Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, his office said.

Putin and Merkel discussed "opportunities for international support for the restoration of stability" in Ukraine, the Kremlin statement said. It gave no details, but Russia has indicated it wants Western states to press the Kiev government to grant broad autonomy to Ukraine's regions.

Western officials have expressed concern that Putin may have set his sights on pro-Russian Transdniestria, on Ukraine's western border, following the annexation of Crimea.
Putin's comments appeared aimed at turning the tables, blaming others for tension over Transdniestria and saying it could not be ignored.

"The Russian leader spoke of the need to take effective measures aimed at removing the de facto external blockade of this region and at searching for a fair and comprehensive solution to the Transdniestria issue," the Kremlin statement said.

Transdniestria, with a population of half a million, has run its own affairs since 1992 after fighting a brief war against the Moldovan government over fears that it might join Romania after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia has a permanent garrison of peacekeepers there.

Ukraine wants to regain control of Odessa refinery - minister


The Kiev government wants control of the Odessa oil refinery to return to Ukrainian hands, interior minister Arsen Avakov said on Monday.

Russian newspaper Kommersant said earlier this month that the refinery's previous owner, Vetek, transferred the plant to Russia's VTB bank after failing to repay the loan which it had received to buy it from Lukoil last year.

Avakov said the refinery was now controlled by a Russian bank, which he did not name.

Vetek is owned by tycoon Serhiy Kurchenko who amassed a large fortune under the presidency of Viktor Yanukovich, who was removed from power last month.

Ukraine's prosecutor general issued a warrant for Kurchenko arrest earlier this month, on suspicion of stealing state property.

Kurchenko also left Ukraine last month and Avakov said that police had seized thousands of tonnes of refined oil products belong to his companies.

Ukrainian regional officials reported this month that Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, could buy the refinery.

"We have uncovered a plan to transfer the Odessa refinery from Kurchenko's company to a Russian bank," Avakov said on his Facebook page.

He added the government would launch a "bid to return the ownership of the plant to Ukraine."

VTB, VETEK and the Odessa refinery were not immediately available for comment.

The refinery, designed to process 3.6 million tonnes of crude oil per year (70,000 barrels per day), suspended oil processing from late February. It also said it planned maintenance in March.

Russian PM angers Ukraine by visiting Crimea


Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev flaunted Russia's grip on Crimea by flying to the region and holding a government meeting there on Monday, angering Ukraine and defying Western demands to hand the peninsula back to Kiev.

The Ukrainian government denounced the visit, a few hours after the latest round of crisis talks between Russia and the United States ended inconclusively, as a "crude violation" of the rules of diplomacy.

Russia said it had pulled some troops back from near Ukraine's eastern border, a move that could ease tension in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War. The Defence Ministry said a motorised infantry battalion was being withdrawn from the region. A battalion numbers between 300 and 1,200 men.

However, Medvedev's visit taunted Western leaders by underlining their inability to force President Vladimir Putin to relinquish Crimea, seized after the overthrow of Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and annexed on March 21.

Accompanying Medvedev, outspoken Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin - targeted by Western sanctions - left no doubt about the symbolism of the trip, saying on Twitter: "Crimea is ours. Basta!"

Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed by telephone ways of stabilising Ukraine and another former Soviet Republic, Moldova. A Kremlin statement quoted Putin as calling for a comprehensive solution that would a "blockade" on Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria.

Soon after landing in Crimea's main city of Simferopol with many members of his cabinet, Medvedev held a government meeting attended by Crimean leaders and outlined moves to revive the region's struggling economy.

"Our aim is to make the peninsula as attractive as possible to investors, so that it can generate sufficient income for its own development. There are opportunities for this - we have taken everything into consideration," he said, sitting at a large desk with Russian flags behind him.

"And so we have decided to create a special economic zone here. This will allow for the use of special tax and customs regimes in Crimea, and also minimise administrative procedures," he told the meeting, broadcast live on Russian state television.

In comments that made clear Russia had no plans to give back the region, he set out moves to increase wages for some 140,000 state workers in Crimea, boost pensions, turn the region into a tourism hub, protect energy links, end reliance on Ukraine for water and improve its roads, railways and airports.

The visit appeared aimed to cement and celebrate Moscow's acquisition of Crimea, which has a narrow ethnic Russian majority and was transferred from Russia to Ukraine by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954.

NO AGREEMENT AT TALKS

Ukraine sent a protest note to Moscow over Medvedev's trip, declaring that "the visit of an official person to the territory of another state without preliminary agreement is a crude violation of the rules of the international community."

Medvedev landed in Simferopol hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Paris late on Sunday and reiterated that Washington considered Russia's actions in Crimea "illegal and illegitimate".

Kerry said resolving the crisis over Ukraine depended on a Russian troop pullback from Ukraine's borders. The United States has put the number near the eastern border at up to 40,000.

Russia has described the troop buildup as part of war games. Ukrainian Major-General Oleksandr Rozmaznin, told journalists in Kiev that the number of troops near the border had been reduced but that might just reflect a scheduled rotation of conscripts.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the slight reduction in troop numbers was a small signal that the border situation was becoming less tense.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russian officials since a March 16 referendum in which Crimea voted for union with Russia. The West says the vote was a sham as Russian forces had taken control of the region.

Russia has shrugged off the sanctions, though the absorption of Crimea and its 2 million residents creates a new financial burden as Russia struggles with slow growth, rising inflation, a weak currency and unusually high capital flight this year.

Medvedev indicated he hoped Crimea, which he said had "colossal prospects" for tourism income, would become self-sufficient.

A senior local economic official said the impoverished Black Sea peninsula hopes for an economic leap forward with large-scale investments, state subsidies and tax breaks from Moscow.

"We have underdeveloped infrastructure and poor people. Now all this has just come to an end and we will finally start dynamic development," Rustam Temirgaliyev, Crimea's First Deputy Prime Minister, told Reuters.

The Crimean economy generates some $4 billion a year but is highly dependent on energy supplies from Ukraine and suffered widespread blackouts last week, which Temirgaliyev denounced as a plot by Kiev.

Boosting the local economy and tourism faces big obstacles, not least a decision by the European Union this month to impose heavy tariffs on goods from the annexed region.

Of the 6-8 million tourists a year who visited Crimea before Moscow intervened, more than 60 percent were from Ukraine, many who came by train on state-funded holidays for public sector workers, and only one-quarter from Russia.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said last week that Russia would spend up to 243 billion roubles ($6.82 billion) in Crimea this year, to be financed from the budget reserve.

The ultimate cost of its action in Crimea is likely to be far higher: analysts in a Reuters poll last week slashed their forecasts for Russian economic growth.

Crimea, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, has an estimated 55-billion-rouble budget deficit, and has relied on Ukraine for  85 percent of its electricity, 90 percent of its drinking water and much of its food.

It biggest industry is tourism as one of the former Soviet Union's few warm seaside resorts but making it an attractive destination for Russians will be more difficult, since most travel by air and have a wider choice of holiday destinations.

Crimea would have to compete with Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Egypt, as well as Russia's own brand new $50 billion Black Sea Olympic resort in Sochi.

A young woman in Simferopol who gave her name only as Yulia welcomed Medvedev's visit: "It's always good when top figures pay us visits because they usually bring money and this is what we need.”