Ex-FSB chief warns force operations in southeast of Ukraine fraught with bloodshed

MOSCOW, April 15 (Itar-Tass) - Decisions made by the Kiev authorities to conduct force operations in the southeast of Ukraine will make bloodshed inevitable, Ex- FSB chief, MP Nikolai Kovalyov, who is a member of the Duma committee on security, declared at a plenary session of the State Duma on Tuesday. "The present developments in Ukraine have naturally aroused concern because a number of quite opposite centers have weapons in their arsenals. These centers are, above all, armed formations created by oligarchs and subordinate to a concrete oligarch who finances these centers. Using mercenaries who have already been ruling in Ukraine now is one of the factors which destabilizes the situation," Kovalyov warned. "One may say that regrettably, the bloodshed is inevitable despite warnings made by deputies of the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments who seek to avoid it," Kovalyov said. "Incidentally, the population of the southeast of Ukraine had been prepared for a dialogue which they demanded immediately, but none of the Kiev administration bothered to talk in a humane manner and in a constructive key with the people who have so many woes and questions," Kovalyov said. He expressed particular concern about a number of recent provocations against Russia which has been unfairly accused without any facts to prove the accusations. "I am declaring from this rostrum - taking power by force is a way nowhere; it is a way to civil war and bloodshed."