Disturbing news comes again from the south-east of Ukraine: shelling and prevented terrorist attack. To protect the inhabitants of Donbass, the State Duma asks the President of Russia to recognize the people’s republics.
If the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada does not want to determine the legal status of Donbass, without fulfilling what is expressly stated in the Minsk agreements for the eighth year, the Russian State Duma may well do this.
“This is the last warning. A warning that it is necessary to comply with the Minsk agreements, otherwise Ukraine may lose its territorial integrity. This is the most important political signal that says that Russia is serious, that it is determined to continue the conversation through diplomacy,” – said the deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov.
official recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics is a reasonable alternative to the military hysteria that the West is whipping up in the region.
“In conditions when significant armed forces of Ukraine are concentrated on the border of the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics and they threaten war, we believe that such a measure – the official recognition of the independence of these republics – will cool hot heads,” the leader of A Just Russia – For Truth said. Sergei Mironov.
“We hope that all the actions that are being taken today are primarily aimed at ensuring that there are as few casualties among the civilian population as possible and that the conflict does not escalate,” said LDPR deputy Yaroslav Nilov.
Moreover, there – in the zone of this conflict – there live several hundred thousand Russian citizens, whom the state will by no means leave to the mercy of fate.
On Tuesday, February 15, two appeals of the State Duma on this issue were considered at once – identical in content, but the addressee in the first was the president, and in the second – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Rating voting is an extremely rare form when parliament has to choose from several options. The one with the most votes wins. Each draft is discussed separately and, in principle, none of them can be accepted if more than half of the deputies are against it. Both documents were approved, but won – 351 votes against 310 – the one that will go directly to the Kremlin.
“The resolution will be signed immediately and sent to the head of state. Dear colleagues, we have made a decision,” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, summed up.
The word is for the president.
“The form of implementation of this decision, the timing of the implementation of this decision are the powers of the President of the Russian Federation. Moreover, he said yesterday that we are continuing the negotiation process on the entire range of issues. Probably, this decision will be considered by the president in conjunction with the positions that he currently has on table as a meeting room with our – in quotation marks – partners,” MP Oleg Morozov said.
In the future, a combination of both scenarios is not excluded – the Kremlin will almost certainly consult with the Foreign Ministry before doing anything.
“I trust our diplomats and believe that they are doing a very important job, for which our diplomats have all the necessary competencies,” MP Sardana Avksentieva said.
Today’s voting is also a kind of cross-section of public opinion, because each deputy has a certain number of voters.
“This is a step that shows the president the real mood, reflected by the State Duma, the position of the Russian population. And I am sure that this step will help the population of the southeast (Ukraine – ed.) not to be drawn into that large-scale provocationwhich with a high probability – and we see it – is being prepared now by the West,” said Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the State Duma for International Affairs.
The further development of events around the recognition of the DPR and LPR depends, among other things, on the response of the West.