Ukraine crisis

MOSCOW -- Ukrainian authorities do not take into account the needs of common people, chairman of the Russian State Duma, lower house of the parliament, Sergei Naryshkin, said Thursday.

Referring to Kiev's recent threats to introduce visa requirements for the Russian citizens and its intention to quit Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Sergei Naryshkin called them "political statements made by self-appointed authorities of Ukraine."

"In case the visa regime is introduced, our citizens will certainly face big difficulties," Naryshkin told reporters, adding that Russian and Ukrainian people are knotted together with thousands of family ties and common interests.

"Obviously, Ukraine's leadership does not think about the people," he said.

Currently, Russian and Ukrainian citizens are not required to hold travel passports for crossing the common border.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced Kiev decided to relinquish its chairmanship of the CIS and was pondering a possible withdrawal from the post-Soviet alliance.

Ukraine is one of three founding members of the CIS, along with Russia and Belarus, but Ukraine has never ratified the treaty.

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