STRASBOURG, March 12, /ITAR-TASS/. Neither Russia nor the European Union is interested in further deterioration of the situation in Ukraine, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said.

“We agreed that we are not interested in deterioration of the situation. Our European colleagues told us that they do not want to impose sanctions on Russia but may find themselves in a situation where they will have to do that,” Pushkov, who is also the head of the European Democrat Group in the PACE, said after an urgent meeting of the Russia-EU parliamentary cooperation committee on Wednesday, March 12.

Committee members agreed to “minimise the damage that may be caused” by sanctions because “neither Russia nor the European Union is interested in this,” the MP said.

European parliamentarians have also agreed with Russia’s position that Maidan (collective name for protesters in Kiev) is not a body of power in Ukraine, Russian MP Sergei Zheleznyak, co-chair of the Russia-EU Parliamentary Committee, said after the meeting.

“Our European colleagues reaffirmed that Maidan is not a body of state power or a part of the legitimate system of power in Ukraine,” Zheleznyak said.