Milos Zeman is due to pay an official visit
to Russia on November 20-24.
PRAGUE,
November 16. /TASS/. The European Union’s double standards on Crimea’s
reunification with Russia are a bad practice, Czech President Milos Zeman said
in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail
Gusman on Thursday.
"On the
one hand, you have Kosovo, where there was the United Nations’ guarantee, but
this guarantee was not secured, and on the other hand - Crimea, where the
referendum was held," Zeman stressed. "These are double standards and
this is bad."
Zeman earlier said many times that the UN had guaranteed Kosovo’s autonomy as part of Yugoslavia and then the international community allowed the bombing of Serbia to take place.
According
to Zeman, the fact that he is the only European politician who has said so does
not mean that the others don’t have similar views. He believes that "they
lack courage to voice them (their opinion) in public."
The Czech
president said at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE) on October 10 that Crimea’s reunification with Russia was already
an "accomplished fact." He also suggested that Russia and Ukraine
could come to terms on Crimea if Moscow paid compensation "in financial
form or in oil and gas."
According
to Zeman, in case of Ukraine’s refusal to accept the compensation "a
European war" could begin. The Czech leader also said Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev’s decision on handing over Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 was a mistake.
Czech president’s visit to Russia
Czech President
Milos Zeman is due to pay an official visit to Russia on November 20-24. Zeman
plans to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 21. On
November 22, the Czech leader will be in Moscow where he will meet with Russian
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He is expected to address the Russian-Czech
Business Forum in the Russian capital.
The Czech
president who will be accompanied by a delegation made up of representatives of
the country’s business circles will also visit Russia’s Urals city of
Yekaterinburg, which will host a business forum bringing together Russian and
Czech entrepreneurs on November 23.
Zeman’s
visit to Russia will be one of his last foreign trips during his five-year
presidential tenure, which expires next spring. The country will hold
presidential election in January 2018, during which the incumbent leader will
seek re-election for a second five-year term.
Source:
ITAR-TASS 16-11-2017
