Moscow questions Ukraine leadership’s legitimacy for dialogue

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday: “Today I see no legitimate Ukrainian partners for a dialogue. If people crossing Kyiv in black masks and Kalashnikov rifles are considered a government, it will be difficult for us to work with such a government," Medvedev said. "Some of our foreign, Western partners think otherwise, considering them to be legitimate authorities," Medvedev said. "I do not know which constitution, which laws they were reading, but it seems to me it is an aberration of perception when something that is essentially the result of a mutiny is called legitimate."  On the withdrawal of the Russian ambassador from Kiev, the prime minister spoke of a “real threat to our interests, and to our citizens’ lives and health.”