‘Geneva Plus’ to depend on Minsk-2 success - expert

One of the leading U.S. experts, Senior Director for Human Rights and Human Freedoms at the McCain Institute, David Kramer, commented to an Ukrinform correspondent on a recent Poroshenko’s statement.

“I'm not confident that the West will be keen to form such a group unless and until the Minsk agreement is fulfilled,” the expert said and warned about possible difficulties in the realization of such a format creation.

On the other side, Cramer noted that the Minsk agreements have no references to Crimea, and this is “one of its biggest shortcomings” of the document.

As the same time, Cramer said that the process of Crimea’s return should become a priority not only for Ukraine and the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum, but also for all other states.

Overall, Kramer commended Poroshenko for raising this idea, but advised "don't hold your breath waiting for it to come to fruition."

In addition, the expert stressed that the return of the peninsula to Ukrainian control can take a while.

“But until it is retuned, the sanction related to its annexation should remain in place,” Kramer noted.

As Ukrinform reported, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he plans to launch a new international process to return Russia-occupied Crimea.

“The most favorable format for such a process is the ‘Geneva Plus’ format with the participation of our allies from the European Union, the United States, and maybe the Budapest memorandum signatories,” the president said.

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