MOSCOW. Sept 17 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decision to terminate Ukraine's friendship treaty with Russia is not independent, according to State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky.
"This is a decision that was obviously not made in Kyiv, like many other decisions made and announced by Petro Oleksiyivych Poroshenko before now," Slutsky told Interfax on Monday.
Poroshenko's decree on not extending the treaty will not worsen relations between Moscow and Kyiv, he said. This is only the most recent manifestation of the Ukrainian authorities' "non-acceptance of everything related to Russia," he said.
"I am not expecting any catastrophic consequences from this decision. This is just one more demonstration of the cheap, puppet essence of the current Kyiv authorities," Slutsky said.
"This situation is dragging on anyway. The point is that Kyiv is not implementing the Minsk Agreements," he said when asked whether he thought Poroshenko's decree would affect the situation surrounding Donbas and the Minsk Agreements.
"I do not think that Poroshenko's decision will somehow further swing the situation one way or the other, because in any case, it's in an extremely destructive position," Slutsky said.