BUDAPEST. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not look like a Ukrainian nationalist, but whether he will deal with this social phenomenon is unclear, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. .
"I don't think that I have the right to rate the actions of the president of Ukraine, especially in his communications with the nationalists. Mr. Zelensky himself does not, of course, look like a Ukrainian nationalist, but whether he will be able to deal with them is difficult for me to say right now," Putin told a press conference in Budapest.
Putin could not say whether "cajoling people on the contact line who are refusing to obey his orders" was the right form of communication chosen by Zelensky.
"The question is whether he will see through what he said in public and what he himself thinks should be done, which in this particular instance is not such a complicated issue: disengaging the warring sides on the contact line in two populated areas," Putin said.
Asked whether the latest disengagements brought forward the prospect of a Normandy-format meeting, Putin said: "We are always ready to hold any meetings, including in the Normandy format, as long as they are well prepared and lead not to empty talk but end in a concrete result which benefits [crisis] settlement as a whole."