MOSCOW. June 23 (Interfax) - Attempts of the Ukrainian Choice leader Viktor Medvedchuk to start negotiations between Kyiv and southeastern Ukraine are an important beginning but the success of these attempts is doubtful, leading Russian experts on Ukraine said.
"Any step aimed at stopping bloodshed should be assessed positively. And what the results will be depends on many factors. Medvedchuk is close to Moscow. It is possible that an additional cooperation channel - including for Russia - to resolve the situation in Ukraine will be created with his assistance," head of the Center for Ukrainian Studies at the Russian Institute of Europe Viktor Mironenko told Interfax on Monday.
The fact that Medvedchuk has certain status among Ukrainian political elite is a strong side of his mission, Mironenko said. "Medvedchuk is not the last figure in Ukraine and he is quite notable," he said.
"If Kyiv does not want to talk to those, whom the Ukrainian authorities call separatists, then maybe they will talk to Medvedchuk. I do not know whether new President [Petro] Poroshenko will talk to him. The idea is good but it is very difficult to presuppose how to implement it, how it will be treated in Ukraine and how Medvedchuk himself will behave," Mironenko said.