Russia will respect Ukraine vote, says Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that Moscow will recognise the outcome of Ukraine’s presidential vote this weekend.

Speaking at an investment forum in St Petersburg on Friday, Putin said Russia would “respect the choice of the Ukrainian people” and would work with the new leadership.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that Moscow will recognise the outcome of Ukraine’s presidential vote this weekend.

Speaking at an investment forum in St Petersburg on Friday, Putin said Russia would “respect the choice of the Ukrainian people” and would work with the new leadership.

He said he was upbeat on the prospects for resolving the crisis in Ukraine and that doing so would help improve relations with the United States.

“I’m an optimist. I am not losing faith that the situation in Ukraine will at some point become normal and we will find the inner strength to normalise relations (with the United States),” the Reuters news agency reported.

He also said that Russia did not want to isolate itself from the rest of the world and that it wanted to work with the United States on many projects.

“We are not planning any self-isolation,” Putin said. “We hope that common sense ... will prompt our European and US partners to work with Russia,”

Yet earlier, Putin had blamed the West for both encouraging a “coup” in Ukraine when the nation’s pro-Russian president was chased from power and for plunging the country into what he described as ”chaos and a full-scale civil war.”

In a live televised address from Kiev, acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov, who is not running in Sunday’s presidential vote amid a surge a attacks by pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east, emphasised the importance of choosing a new leader.

“Today, we are building a new European country the foundation of which was laid by millions of Ukrainians who proved that they are capable of defending their own choice and their country,” Turchynov said, the AP news agency reported.

“We will never allow anyone to rob us of our freedom and independence, turn our Ukraine into a part of the post-Soviet empire.”