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State Duma to consider two competing appeals to president on Donbass — speaker

The State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots on Monday supported both versions of the appeal

Russian State Duma Konstantin Aksenov/Shutterstock/FOTODOM

Russian State Duma

© Konstantin Aksenov/Shutterstock/FOTODOM

MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. The State Duma on Tuesday will consider two competing appeals to Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize two self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the parliament’s the lower house, said on Telegram.

"The issue of the appeal to the president about the need to recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics will be considered tomorrow in preferential voting," he said. "The version that will collect more votes in the preferential voting will be adopted."

The first version, the speaker said, stipulates that the appeal be sent to the president immediately after it passes. The other version would first be sent for review to the Foreign Ministry and other government agencies, and lawmakers will later come back to its consideration.

"This is an extremely important and high-stakes issue," Volodin said. "Washington is inflaming tensions and supplying weapons to Ukraine together with European countries, while Kiev continues to disregard the Minsk accords."

"All that carries threats and risks for the lives of our citizens and fellow Russians that live in the DPR and LPR," he went on to say.

The State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots on Monday supported both versions of the appeal. One of them has been put forth by the Communist Party faction, and the other was submitted by United Russia.

The Communist fraction in the State Duma and its leader Gennady Zyuganov on January 19 submitted to the State Duma an appeal from the lower house to Putin for the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics. As follows from the draft, the State Duma would ask the head of state to recognize the republics as "independent and sovereign states." The draft of the appeal says the move would be "morally justified.".

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