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11Aug16

Russian lawmaker insists Kiev renounce armed aggression to continue Normandy talks

France and Germany must demand guarantees that Kiev will refrain from military actions against Russia's Crimea and the Donbass region in southeastern Ukraine in order to continue meetings in the Normandy format, Russian Federation Council lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev told TASS on Thursday.

The so-called Normandy format "may go ahead provided that there are guarantees by Kiev of abandoning all military action, especially acts of terror, aimed at Russia's Crimea and Ukraine's southeast," Kosachev, who heads the upper house's foreign affairs committee, said.

The lawmaker stressed that "in this sense the role of Germany and France is very important as they must finally demand such guarantees from Ukraine's authorities."

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday it has foiled terrorist attacks in Crimea plotted by Ukraine's Defense Ministry's main intelligence directorate. A group of saboteurs was spotted in the small hours of August 7 near the city of Armyansk, close to the border with Ukraine. One FSB officer was killed during the operation to detain the terrorists. Later a serviceman of Russia's Defense Ministry was killed as the saboteurs were making a second attempt at penetrating the border. The aborted terror attempts were designed to target Crimea's critical infrastructure and life support facilities, the FSB said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he considered any Normandy format meeting pointless given the recent arrest and detention of saboteurs in Crimea. Kiev earlier suggested holding the meeting in the Normandy format (bringing together the Russian, Ukrainian, French and German leaders) on the sidelines of the G20 meeting scheduled for September 4-5 in China. Moscow had earlier accepted the proposal.

[Source: Itar Tass, Moscow, 11Aug16]
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