Recognizing the separatist republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine would be ?€?counter-productive?€? for Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview Tuesday.
In an hour-long live video blog with Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Lavrov said that recognizing the Lugansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic would give the West a reason to stop putting pressure on Kiev. ?€?They don't like to say so in public, but when when they talk to the Ukrainians in private ?€“ and we know about this ?€“ they demand everything which we negotiated in Minsk,?€? said Lavrov.
Lavrov said that Russia would not be able to act if the West stopped putting pressure on Kiev. He also claimed that Russia's ?€?occasional pressure?€? on the OSCE meant that the mission ?€?publishes reports not only on the Donbass area, but on other regions of Ukraine.?€?
In April 2015, Vladimir Putin declined to comment on whether or not Moscow would recognize the pro-Russian separatist republics. He also said that any answer would be ?€?counter-productive.?€?