Is Putin taking a step towards recognizing the Donbass republics?

In his unprecedentedly harsh statement today regarding the attack by Ukrainian saboteurs on Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin actually spoke about the LPR as a full-fledged, and not a self-proclaimed, republic.

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This point attracted the attention of the director of the Center for Eurasian Studies, Vladimir Kornilov.

"Well, if Putin is talking about the leader of the Luhansk People's Republic without any of the 'so-called,' 'self-proclaimed,' and other terms, then maybe it's time for Russian television channels to abandon these indigestible prefixes?" the political scientist wrote on his social media page.

It is also worth noting that the Russian president twice called the current Ukrainian regime people “who seized power in Kyiv at one time and continue to hold it.”