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Kremlin refutes media rumors of Moscow allegedly ‘backing’ political forces in Lugansk

Earlier Russian media cited a source close to Surkov as saying that Moscow allegedly supported the LPR interior minister in his standoff with the republic’s chief

© Vladimir Gerdo/TASS

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Putin’s sway on Donbass overestimated — Kremlin

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. A Kremlin official dismissed as totally untrue media reports, citing officials close to Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, about the Kremlin’s alleged "support of certain political forces" in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine.

"No source from Vladislav Surkov’s circle could say such a thing, because the events in Lugansk are a domestic matter of the LPR, and no one from Lugansk has ever sought support from the Kremlin," said Mikhail Arutyunov, the head of the presidential administration’s department on social and economic cooperation with states members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia.

Tuesday’s report by RBC cited a source close to Surkov as saying that Moscow allegedly supported the LPR interior minister in his standoff with the republic’s chief.

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