Oleksandr Sushko: Kremlin wants to disrupt 25 May election

Oleksandr Sushko, the research director of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, discussed Yanukovych's statement in Rostov-on-Don with charter97.org.

Moscow uses Yanukovych trying to undermine the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities.

“The only clear sense of his message is the delegitimisation of the election in Ukraine scheduled for May 25. It is a part of the Russian strategy aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the current Ukrainian authorities. It's important for Moscow to say the current government is not legitimate and the government after May 25 will be declared illegal as well. The Russian authorities use Yanukovych for this purpose. This is the reason why he was given a task to make a statement. His other theses are not informative. They just repeat what he said earlier,” the expert is confident.

The analyst says the former Ukrainian president has made no independent messages so far.

“Moscow masters are saying him what to do today. Yanukovych has no political weight. Russia uses him to legitimate its own actions and positions,” Oleksandr Sushko said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said ousted president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych had no political future. The statement was made at a press conference in Novo-Ogaryovo on March 4. Putin added Yanukovych could have been killed in Ukraine if he hadn't left the country. Russia gave the former president shelter for humanitarian reasons, according to him.