Moscow does not support the DPR’s idea to rewrite the Minsk agreements
Moscow – Kyiv, November 7 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – The Kremlin does not support the DPR/LPR leaders' proposal to rewrite the Minsk agreements. Moscow considers them the lesser of two evils, Vedomosti reports.
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Let us remind you that representatives of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics are preparing a new version of the Minsk Protocol, which they intend to present at the next meeting with the participation of Ukraine, the OSCE and Russia, according to a joint statement released yesterday by representatives of the DPR and LPR. They justified the need to modify this document by the fact that immediately after the elections in the DPR and LPR, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko announced the imminent repeal of the law on the special status of certain regions of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and his intention to introduce a new version of it. It may contain a definition of the boundaries of areas covered by special status, which was missing in the first version, and a new date for elections of local authorities.
However, Moscow insists that the main emphasis should be on maintaining the positive trends achieved by the parties during the implementation of the Minsk agreements, as well as on preventing the degradation of the humanitarian situation. “We cannot miss the chance to start the political process that was laid down by the Minsk agreements. This is a guarantee that the humanitarian situation will not develop according to the worst scenario and will not turn into a humanitarian catastrophe,” a source in Russian diplomatic circles explained to Vedomosti.
The law on the special status of Donbass was adopted formally and did not contain a substantive part, since the Verkhovna Rada did not define clear boundaries of the territory of the law, so it was meaningless, says the head of the Center for Political Conjuncture, Alexey Chesnakov. And now, after the elections of the new convocation of the Rada, in which residents of the DPR and LPR did not participate, the republics can no longer recognize the Rada’s right to determine these borders and their destiny, if the residents of Donbass did not grant Ukrainian deputies such a right, the expert adds. “It’s strange if representatives of Lvov will determine special areas of Donbass. Kyiv found itself in a trap that it itself created,” Chesnakov emphasizes. In his opinion, now Ukraine will have to coordinate with the DPR and LPR not only the law on the borders of Donbass regions, but also other laws relating to the DPR and LPR: this followed from the Minsk agreements, which spoke of the need for a national dialogue, but was not implemented.
The fact that both sides do not value the Minsk process very much is understandable - the goal for Kyiv at the time of concluding these agreements was to stop the offensive of the militias, says MGIMO expert Andrei Sushentsov. And in the self-proclaimed republics now they do not feel the benefit of the Minsk protocol, since they have great ambitions. “But the Minsk process does not need to be buried, it is always better to have some kind of legal framework than none, even if it is not implemented,” sums up Sushentsov.
Moscow does not support the DPR 's idea to rewrite the Minsk agreements.