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Issue of incorporating Donbass into Russia not on the Kremlin agenda

The spokesman noted that Moscow will continue to protect the interests of Russian-speaking people in the region

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. Russia is not planning to "reclaim" Donbass but will continue to protect interests of Russian-speaking people, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday commenting on remarks by Editor-in-Chief of Rossiya Segodnya news agency Margarita Simonyan who called for incorporating these territories into Russia at the recent Russian Donbass forum.

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Kiev capitalizes on issue of Donbass to economically hurt Russia — diplomat

"Margarita Simonyan is a media manager and journalist. In no way can she express the official position of Russia. This issue is not on the agenda," Peskov stressed.

The Kremlin representative underlined, "Russia maintains a very responsible position in the framework of efforts to help Ukraine to resolve its domestic Ukrainian conflict." "Russia has been consistent in its responsible position of protecting the rights of the Russian-speaking population of Donbass and will continue protecting Russians," he reassured.

When asked under what conditions Russia would be willing to incorporate Donbass, Peskov reiterated, "This issue is not on the agenda directly or indirectly."

He also shared an opinion that calling the recent forum ‘Russian Donbass’ is "perfectly normal." "Nothing sets the teeth on edge here," Peskov believes. He explained that Donbass "is populated by the overwhelming majority of Russians and people that speak Russian." According to the spokesman, Donbass "has always been a Russian-speaking region of Ukraine, there has always been many Russians living there, it is an obvious fact registered in all censuses."

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