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Developments in eastern Ukraine

New PM approved in Luhansk People’s Republic

Marat Bashirov says the Luhansk People's Republic would switch over to rubles since the Ukrainian Finance Ministry disconnected the Luhansk treasury from stata servers

Marat Bashirov Dmitry Oleynikov

Marat Bashirov

© Dmitry Oleynikov

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Luhansk Republic’s government dismissed

LUHANSK, July 08. /ITAR-TASS/. The Supreme Council (parliament) of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday approved the candidacy of Marat Bashirov for the post of the chairman of the LPR Council of Ministers.

Bashirov was born in 1964 in the Russian republic of Mordovia. He is a former vice president of private Russian energy company KES (Complex Energy Systems), which is represented in 16 Russian regions.

The newly elected premier outlined the priorities of the Council of Ministers activity for the near future, which “will be aimed at the resolution of economic issues". He said a working budget variant will be drafted by November and will contain figures in rubles.

The Ukrainian Finance Ministry disconnected the Luhansk treasury, the regional structure designed to exercise control over distribution of budget funds, from state servers on Tuesday. Bashirov said that was why the LPR was switching over to the Russian currency.

“The working variant of the budget will be drafted in rubles. Taking into account that Kiev disconnected our treasury yesterday, the issue of joining this or that currency emerged,” he said.

The new government of the LPR plans to resolve the issue of cooperation with the Russian Federation in the energy sphere shortly before the coming winter. All the more so as the Luhansk Republic is connected to Russia’s gas system, and, Bashirov said, "there will be no difficulties with deliveries". He said steam generating stations may be supplied from Russia to the LPR.

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