Vladimir Putin has promised that destroyed cities in the Donbas will be rebuilt. “Our country will help the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the Russian president said during a video conference with children and young people.
Russia officially recognized the independence of the pro-Russian self-declared “people’s republics” Luhansk and Donetsk in February to protect the areas. Moscow also previously invested in the annexed Crimean peninsula. Bridges, an airport and a highway were built there.
However, rebuilding the Donbas threatens to become much more expensive. “It will take weeks, months and even years to restore order to the Donbas. But we will definitely do that,” he told a concerned girl from the region.
Another girl asked Putin to chair a panel for Russia’s new Children’s and Youth Association. “I agree with that,” he said. The organization, which some say can be compared to the Komsomol (the communist youth union of the Soviet Union; ed.), would be named by the end of the year. Critics accuse Putin of trying to set up a paternalistic authoritarian system like in Soviet times.
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