Latvian minister: Russia open to resolving Ukraine issue

RIGA , Latvia, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Russia appears to be more open to a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflict, Latvia's foreign minister said Wednesday.

"There is a kind of an opening we can use. If (the) situation improves in eastern Ukraine, we would certainly support a softening of sanctions," said Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, adding he saw "signals there is a certain kind of willingness on the Russian side to work more closely" with the European Union in reducing tension in return for an easing of sanctions.

"We have to be flexible. If we see progress we have to act accordingly. If no, there is no reason to lift sanctions."

Rinkevics said he would travel to Kiev and Moscow this weekend to discuss the situation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and others. He emphasized the EU would renew sanctions against Russia, when they expire in March, if no progress on securing the border between Russia and Ukraine, and its flow of weapons and equipment into Ukraine, was evident.

"The only method is to negotiate" as the way "to stop this nonsense, this madness," Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma said in Riga Wednesday of the Ukraine situation. Latvia, a NATO country, is growing in stature as a diplomatic resource after it received the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko will meet in Kazakhstan on Jan. 15 for a summit to be attended by French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.