Russian Security Council Secretary Says Poroshenko's Reelection Could Break Up Ukraine

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2019) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's reelection in March as a result of election fraud would only deepen the existing rift in the country and could potentially break it up, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev has predicted.

"His victory as a result of blatant falsification of voting returns would deepen political and socio-economic tensions in the society and potentially cause Ukraine to fall apart," he told the Izvestia newspaper.�

Patrushev said that Poroshenko's reelection for a second term would not mend Russian-Ukrainian ties.

"If Poroshenko stays in power it will not normalize the Russian-Ukrainian relationship. He has already made the decisive step to end the Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Russia and Ukraine," he explained.

Patrushev argued that only the United States was interested in keeping Poroshenko in power.

"He is a known, predictable and tractable figure in the eyes of Americans, whose reelection is in Washington's strategic interests of keeping Ukraine on track to the Euro-Atlantic [integration]," he said.

He warned the incumbent against using populist rhetoric to score points with voters, claiming that people in Ukraine had come to associate Poroshenko with a rise in the far-right, rampant human rights and freedom of religion violations, and corruption scandals.