Ukrainian president taken away from journalists in Riga

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was not allowed to speak to the press before the opening of the morning session of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga on May 22.

After being photographed, before the opening of the session, the heads of delegations began approaching media representatives for brief interviews. Poroshenko did the same. The journalists asked him for some comments and he was ready to give them, but Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma and Chairman of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker took him away, making it clear to the press that there was no time for any interviews.

As EADaily reported earlier, the Eastern Partnership Summit kicked off in Riga on May 21. Eastern Partnership is the EU’s project comprising six post-Soviet republics. Three of them, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, signed association agreements with the EU in 2014.

Earlier, mass media reported that Belarus and Armenia refused to sign the summit’s joint declaration because of its wordings concerning Crimea.