Russian President Vladimir Putin opened a meeting with top economic
advisers late Thursday with comments on the crash of a Malaysian
airliner in Ukraine. The text of his remarks, as taken from the Kremlin
website and translated by The Associated Press:
---
Dear colleagues!
You know that a terrible event occurred today in the sky over Ukraine,
an awful tragedy -- a civilian plane was killed, 285 people, according
to preliminary information, were killed.
On behalf of the Russian leadership and the Russian government, we
express condolences to the bereaved families, the governments of those
countries whose nationals were on that plane. I ask you to honor their
memory.
(A moment of silence)
In this regard, I want to note that this tragedy would not have happened
if there were peace on this land, if the military actions had not been
renewed in southeast Ukraine. And, certainly, the state over whose
territory this occurred bears responsibility for this awful tragedy.
I have already given instructions to the military departments to provide
all necessary assistance in the investigation of this crime. And I also
ask the government of the Russian Federation through the available
civilian agencies that have the capability to do everything for a
thorough investigation of this event.
We will do everything --
everything that depends on us, anyway -- in order that the objective
picture of what happened is part of the public domain here, in Ukraine
and in the rest of the world. This is an absolutely unacceptable thing,
and no one has the right to let this pass without the appropriate
conclusions and without all of us having objective information about the
incident.
But we have gathered with you for another reason. I would like to talk
to you about the socio-economic situation in the country. We also have
many other issues of the current character. Let's talk about them.
No comments:
Post a Comment