MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2018) US National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Friday that Russia should not interfere in Ukraine's upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, adding that Washington was ready to cooperate with Kiev to prevent this eventuality.
The United States has repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in its 2016 presidential election. Russia has, in turn, denied the allegations as "absurd." While the United States is set to hold midterm elections this November, Ukraine will hold its presidential election in March 2019 and the parliamentary ones in October 2019.
"In terms of interference in the elections, the 2018 elections this November in the United States, and the 2019 elections here in Ukraine, [Ukrainian] President [Petro] Poroshenko and I, and his colleagues and mine, discussed this issue ... I described some of the things that we have said to the Russians about why they shouldn't engage in election meddling in the United States ... in Ukraine and elsewhere," Bolton said.
He added that they had discussed the steps the United States was taking to prevent interference in the US elections by Russia, as well as by Iran, China and North Korea.
"President Poroshenko and I agreed that we'll look at steps that the United States and Ukraine could take to look at election meddling here, and we can do that through normal law enforcement channels and through other mechanisms," Bolton said.
Russia's relations both with Ukraine and with the United States have worsened over a number of issues, including Crimea's reunification with Russia, the Donbas conflict, and the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents in the United Kingdom.
