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Russian diplomat: Donbas special status should be permanent

According to Russia’s envoy to the Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov, the amendments to the law on the special status for the Donbas region should be agreed in the Contact Group

Boris Gryzlov Alexei Nikolskiy/TASS

Boris Gryzlov

© Alexei Nikolskiy/TASS

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MINSK, January 27. /TASS/. Russia’s envoy to the Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov has voiced on Wednesday the stance of the Russian delegation at the talks in Minsk.

"The voting on the Ukrainian Constitution should be tightly linked to the simultaneous passing of the amendments to Articles 1 and 10 of the law on the special status to ensure a permanent basis of this special status in accordance with the Steinmeier formula," he said.

According to Gryzlov, the amendments to the law on the special status for the Donbas region should be agreed in the Contact Group.

"We need to find a legal formula that would guarantee that paragraph 18 of the transitional provisions of the Constitution will refer to the existing version of articles 2-9 of the law on the special status and to the newly-agreed by the Contact Group editions of articles 1 and 10," Gryzlov said, adding that this formula should be enshrined in Ukraine’s Constitution.

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"It is also necessary to enshrine in Ukraine’s Constitution that the powers of the persons elected in Donbass under a separate law should not be terminated in 2017, as stipulated by the Constitutional reform for the whole of Ukraine," Gryzlov said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier earlier said it was necessary to pass a special law on elections in the Donbas region, that is, not a general Ukrainian law on elections, but a law customized for a particular territory and the particular situation. Such a law should secure a special status for the region in accordance with the following formula: "On a temporary basis on election day in Donbas and on the permanent basis as of the moment the OSCE publishes its elections return report."

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